IGMPx: Port Based Service Access Control for IP Multicast

Even though IP multicast can be used for efficient bandwidth utilisation for one-to-many or many-to-many applications, it has not been widely deployed. To commercially deploy multicast services, it is important for the network providers to support AAA services for multicast applications whereby the network providers can control user access to the multicast content and account the multicast usage. Standard multicast protocols do not provide any method to restrict access to only paying customers. In view of this, this paper proposes a novel method to provide access control for multicast services. The proposed IGMPx method provides port-based service access control based for multicast services to ensure multicast user authentication prior to service delivery. The proposed IGMPx method supports multiple users running multiple multicast sessions and also supports older IGMP versions. An OPNET model is built to demonstrate the working of the IGMPx method.