QoS-constrained core selection for group communication

The core-based approach in multipoint communication enhances the solution space in terms of QoS-efficiency of solutions in inter- and intra-domain routing. In an earlier work [A. Karaman, H.S. Hassanein, Extended QoS-framework for Delay-constrained Group Communication, International Journal of Communication Systems, in press.], we showed that the constrained cost minimization solutions in core-based approach proposed to date are restrictive in their search to a subrange of solutions, and we proposed SPAN, a generic framework to process in our identified extended solution space. In this paper, we study the core selection component of SPAN and propose two novel algorithms, SPAN/COST and SPAN/ADJUST, which define the core-selection component of SPAN. SPAN/COST mainly optimizes the cost distances to be traveled between the source–core and core–receiver pairs on the multicast trees, while SPAN/ADJUST selects the cores based on the numbers of nodes they dominate and adjusting the set based on cost. Our algorithms consistently outperform their counterparts proposed to date and can be considered pioneering in their optimization range of multiple metrics and processing in the extended solution space.