Towards (perceived) latency minimisation in audio-conferencing systems over application-level multicast

We propose a design for a scalable and dynamically adaptive application-level multicast (ALM) routing protocol, designed specifically for audio conferencing systems over the Internet. Currently proposed ALM protocols try to optimise receiver-delay for the whole group of participating nodes as the overlay-network is built and during overlay-network maintenance, which, when using standard packet flooding, can result in a number of the participants experiencing unacceptably-high latencies, unsuitable for real-time audio communication; whereas we propose to dynamically prioritise routing for those participants who are currently in conversation (i.e. those who require the lowest latencies in order to react to conversational cues) and allow higher latencies for participants who simply listen to the conversation without taking an active part in it at that particular moment in time. Thus, we aim to provide low perceived latency for all of the audio-conference participants without any support from the underlying network.