A highly efficient RPF-based broadcast protocol using a new two-level pruning mechanism

•New interpretation of DVR table.•Two-level pruning for broadcasting.•Improved bandwidth utilization.

Reverse path forwarding (RPF) based data communication is one of the widely used data communication protocols in networks. The most attractive feature of RPF is that reasonably low amount of memory is needed per router for storing the routing information (DVR table). However, it generates quite a large number of duplicate packets resulting in poor bandwidth utilization. We have observed that if the location of the broadcast source is considered while forwarding a packet, considerable improvement of the bandwidth utilization can be achieved from the viewpoint of less number of duplicate packets generated. In this paper we have used this location aspect in the design of a novel hierarchical pruning mechanism to improve bandwidth utilization for broadcasting based on RPF mechanism for data communication. Experimental results support our theoretical findings and hence guarantee improvement of bandwidth utilization.