Reliable IP multicast services over satellite links

Point-to-multipoint communications have been used for distribution of data. These are mainly found on circuit-switched networks where there is dedicated bandwidth allocation, ensuring a good transmission link. However as packet switched networks become more evolved due to their interesting properties of being able to share the available bandwidth, multicast communication is increasingly employed on these networks. To provide reliability in point-to-multipoint communications system across a satellite link, especially for real-time applications, a scheme employing a novel forward error correction (FEC) is presented. The scheme uses an XOR (exclusive-OR) coding technique to generate the redundancy. Its attraction is the ability to adjust the rate of coding according to the varying condition of the link. By using this transmission strategy, the proposed scheme is implemented at the transport and the data link layer to enhance multicast communication services.