A reliable multicast transport protocol for a Global Broadcast Service-based network

Abstract

The Global Broadcast Service (GBS), a direct broadcast satellite network, connects military units in remote corners of the world using low-cost receive-only terminals. The marriage of GBS' network reach and commercial, off-the-shelf Internet software could connect these same units into a global internetwork and substantially improve battlefield communications and capabilities. This paper focuses on the efforts made in the DARPA BADD ACTD to lay the groundwork for future Internet applications of particular interest: multicast applications. Since no single, widely accepted reliable multicast protocol yet exists, we introduce and describe the Transport for Reliable Multicast (TRM) and a sample multicast application using TRM, the proxy Web server. The multicast proxy server is used to disseminate Web pages of interest to remote Web servers in the same multicast group.