On the dynamic estimation of multicast group sizes

Sara Alouf (1) , Eitan Altman (1) , Chadi Barakat (2) , Philippe Nain (1)

1 MAESTRO - Models for the performance analysis and the control of networks
2 PLANETE - Protocols and applications for the Internet

This paper concerns multicast applications that are interested in the evolution of their membership over time. It covers optimal on-line estimation algorithms for determining the membership of a multicast group. The paper briefly reviews the related work and our own contributions to the field. Using a probabilistic acknowledgement scheme and signal processing's filtering techniques, we have derived MSE-optimal estimators under the assumptions of Poisson subscribers arrival and either exponentially or hyperexponentially distributed lifetime of receivers. Our estimators have been tested through trace-driven simulations using data from real multicast video sessions over which they exhibit very good performance.

Mots clés: on-line estimation; multicast; M/M/∞ queue; diffusion; Kalman filter; Wiener filter

Domaines: Réseaux et télécommunications [cs.NI]

Sara Alouf, Eitan Altman, Chadi Barakat, Philippe Nain. On the dynamic estimation of multicast group sizes. Sixteenth International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS2004), Jul 2004, Leuven, Belgium. ⟨hal-00641248⟩