From CSCW applications to multicast routing: an integrated QoS architecture

Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) has the potential of providing the environment needed for groups of diverse users to cooperate to achieve their common goals. This potential has been under-utilized. One major obstacle is the lack of cooperation between CSCW systems and the underlying network services to accommodate the dynamic behavior of CSCW groups. Multicast routing presents a strong case where current network services are inadequate for the traffic generated in CSCW environments. We demonstrate the need for CSCW-specific multicast routing and present an integrated QoS architecture where a router QoS manager, on behalf of a multicast routing manager, negotiates with host and CSCW-specific QoS managers for efficient resource utilization and guaranteed QoS delivery. The multicast routing manager switches between routing trees or algorithms as guaranteed by the changes in the characteristics and requirements of the CSCW systems running at the hosts. We discuss an aspect-oriented programming approach to the efficient description and flexible implementation of adaptive application and network protocol behavior