FaReCast: Fast, Reliable Application Layer Multicast for Flash Dissemination

Abstract

Abstract. To disseminate messages from a single source to a large number of targeted receivers, a natural approach is the tree-based application layer multicast (ALM). However, in time-constrained flash dissemination scenarios, e.g. earthquake early warning, where time is of the essence, the tree-based ALM has a single point of failure; its reliable extensions using ack-based failure recovery protocols cannot support reliable dissemination in the timeframe needed. In this paper, we exploit path diversity, i.e. exploit the use of multiple data paths, to achieve fast and reliable data dissemination. First, we design a forest-based M2M (Multiple parents-To-Multiple children) ALM structure where every node has multiple children and multiple parents. The intuition is to enable lower dissemination latency through multiple children, while enabling higher reliability through multiple parents. Second, we design multidirectional multicasting algorithms that effectively utilize the multiple data paths in the M2M ALM structure. A key aspect of our reliable dissemination mechanism is that nodes, in addition to communicating the data to children, also selectively disseminate the data to parents and siblings. As compared to trees using traditional multicasting algorithm, we observe an 80% improvement in reliability under 20% of failed nodes with no significant increase in latency for over 99% of the nodes.

An Autonomic Implementation of Reliable Broadcast Based on Dynamic Spanning Trees

“…Kim, Mehrotra and Venkatasubramanian [30] propose a tree-based solution to disseminate a message to a large number of receivers using multiple data paths. Ramanathan et al [17] have proposed a reliable broadcast that runs on a hypercube and uses disjoint spanning trees for sending a message through multiple paths.…”

“…Other tree-based approaches exist such as [11] which assumes a network of arbitrary topology and builds a spanning tree using flooding, which proves expensive in terms of message complexity. Unlike our approach that dynamically builds a spanning tree, the tree-based strategy proposed in [30] relies on a central configuration manager that constructs and maintains the overlay. A fault-tolerant broadcast solution based on multiple (k) simultaneous trees is presented in [4], which tolerates up to k−1 faults.…”

An autonomic hierarchical reliable broadcast protocol for asynchronous distributed systems with failure detection

“…Many reliable broadcast algorithms of the literature exploit spanning trees such as [7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…The algorithm tolerates up to n − 2 failure of nodes or edges and can be adjusted depending on the network reliability. Similarly, Kim et al [9] propose a tree-based solution to disseminate a message to a large number of receivers using multiple data paths in a context of time-constrained dissemination of information. Thus, arguing that reliable extensions using ack-based failure recovery protocols cannot support reliable dissemination with time constraints, the authors exploit the use of multiple data paths trees in order to conceive a fast and reliable multicast dissemination protocol.…”

“…Aiming at scalability and message complexity efficiency, many reliable broadcasts organize processes on logical spanning trees. Messages are then disseminated over the constructed tree, therefore providing logarithmic performance [7][8][9][10][11].…”