An implementation and evaluation of a selective QoS-aware mobile multicasting on multiple wireless networks

With rapid spread of wireless networks, the Internet users require stable and adaptive communication environment everywhere. IP multicasting can provide an efficient method to distribute contents to multiple destinations, and it can be used on a wireless environment with a deployment of IP networks. In the case of broadband wireless networks, a mobile video streaming service are one of attractive services. However, since IP multicast on wireless network does not support retransmission procedures on the MAC layer, any QoS mechanism is required in upper layers. On the other hand, most mobile devices are able to equip multiple wireless interfaces to connect available network dynamically. In this study, therefore, we propose selective QoS-aware multicast streaming which is combined hybrid communication (IP multicast and IP unicast) and ARQ procedure using multiple interfaces. The proposed mechanism provides sustainable streaming while selecting an user-oriented QoS method dynamically on heterogeneous environment. We design and implement its prototype system, and integrate it with a realtime streaming application. Simulation analysis shows the effectiveness and scalability of a proposed method, and some transmission experiments by the prototype system demonstrate improvement of application QoS.