A common API for hybrid group communication

Abstract

Abstract-Recent efforts are made to construct a globally accessible group communication service by a simultaneous use of network and application layer multicast. Such hybrid approaches provide native multicast to group members wherever available, but relocate data distribution and duplication from the network to applications or gateways if needed. Such services require an abstract programming interface to allow for a transparent use by applications. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we explore the problem space of designing a protocol stack for hybrid group communication that covers structured P2P networks. Second, we propose a transparent API that encapsulates a middleware abstraction layer for implementing hybrid multicast, and allows for overlay-underlay agnostic programming.

OverArch: A common architecture for structured and unstructured overlay networks

“…Beside the already described Dabek API [1] for structured P2P networks, there are several other proposals for common application programming interfaces, which restrict themselves to specific instances of P2P services, such as DHTs [19], ALM [20], publish subscribe [21] [22], or focus on cross-layer concerns to fulfill the needs of mobile networks [23]. To our knowledge there is no common API which has been shown to be suitable for both, structured and unstructured overlay networks.…”