A real-time multicast routing algorithm for multimedia applications

Multicast routing in real-time applications has two important requirements: minimal network cost and shortest network delay. It is very difficult to meet one requirement without compromising the other. This paper presents a real-time multicast routing algorithm which minimizes overall network cost without letting the delay from a source to any destination exceed a real-time constraint. The multicast routing with optimal overall network cost is an NP-complete problem. Our algorithm is based on the idea of the minimum spanning tree heuristic. Simulations have been done to compare the routing generated by our algorithm with those by other major algorithms.