A Fast Reroute Scheme for IP Multicast

Abstract

We propose a fast reroute scheme for the single link failure protection of IP multicast network. A multicast network connects nodes as a spanning tree, which is vulnerable to link failures. Our scheme uses ring topologies to ensure a backup path always exists to any single link failure and only a few nodes in the neighborhood of the failed link have to react to the failure. Compare to other solutions, we have four advantages: (1) The multicast tree can be arbitrary. (2) There is only a minimal disruption and there would be no packet loss. (3) Failure protection is available to a wider set of network topologies. (4) Only a small number of multicast nodes are involved and the number of spare links used are also small.