Multicast virtual network mapping for supporting multiple description coding-based video applications

Video applications have gradually become one of the mainstreams of Internet traffic along with the technological advances in recent years. In parallel, network virtualization technique allows Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to be decoupled from the physical network infrastructure operators to provide various video services to customers through tailored Virtual Networks (VNs). In a video multicast VN, the ISP could appropriately determine and configure the virtual nodes and links to deliver customized video service to the affiliated end users. However, available multicast tree mapping algorithms are based on the strong assumption that the locations of source and a collection of destination nodes are known a priori. Also, they have not taken any intermediate nodes between source and destinations into the VN mapping request. These assumptions greatly limit the adoption of advanced video coding techniques. In this paper, the multicast networks mapping for enabling Multiple Description Coding (MDC) based video applications is explored. A novel multicast mapping algorithm, MMPC, is proposed based on path convergence to flexibly identify and configure nodes (with automatic intermediate nodes identification) in multicast trees to meet certain criteria. The suggested approach is described in details and its key characteristics are analyzed through a set of analytical proves. Extensive simulation experiments are carried out to assess its performance (e.g. acceptance ratio, mapping cost and mapping time) against a range of multicast VN request scenarios. The simulation results demonstrate the superiority of MMPC algorithm in terms of multicast mapping efficiency and cost by using the conventional two-phase VN mapping algorithm as a comparison benchmark.