Distribution of multicast tree states over the IPv6 network topology

IPv6 is intended to be the next network layer protocol of the Internet and it is designed to overcome the limitations of the current IPv4 protocol. However, the lack of resources in routers is still the issue in the deployment of state storing protocols in the IPv6 network. In particular, multicast protocols have taken the resources up to their limits for maintaining multicast tree information. The aim of this paper is to study the possible benefit of distributing the multicast tree states on the IPv6 topology in order to optimize the IPv6 network resource usage. To be able to carry out this study, we first had to map the topology of the current IPv6 network. We have used our network cartographer software in order to build an accurate map of the IPv6 network. We then studied the distribution of multicast states by using a simple repartition function. We have found that the use of this function can heavily decrease the number of states stored by the most loaded nodes at the cost of a small overall increase of the total number of states on the topology.