Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Designing Overlay Multicast Networks For Streaming, Ramesh Sitaraman

Computer Science Department Faculty Publication Series

In this paper we present a polynomial time approximation algorithm for designing a multicast overlay network. The algorithm finds a solution that satisfies capacity and reliability constraints to within a constant factor of optimal, and cost to within alogarithmic factor. The class of networks that our algorithm applies to includes the one used by Akamai Technologies to deliver live media streams over the Internet. In particular, we analyze networks consisting of three stages of nodes. The nodes in the first stage are the sources where live streams originate. A source forwards each of its streams to one or more nodes …