Multicast routing with load balancing using Amazon web service

Abstract

Web Services such as AWS have become popular in recent times, with many small and large companies wanting to take advantage of cloud computing technology and its possibilities. However, there is an issue with networks set up using such services, in that they do not allow multicast routing and any attempts to set up such a network are hampered because of security related issues that prevent packets moving across subnets in a public cloud. One can bypass such restrictions by using a central server in the AWS cloud as a multicast router to route packets and simulate a multicast network. However, an issue with such an approach is how best to perform load balancing, which includes hot addition and deletion, in the network. In this paper, we present a novel solution to the problem of load balancing in an AWS network where multicast is not supported. We then present the results of some tests on the system to show that the multicaster works on the AWS as well as performs load balancing with different mechanisms including hop and chain. We conclude that our algorithm can perform multicasting in a non-multicast supported network using a load balancer that provides hot addition and deletion in spite of the restrictions.