Multicast: wired to wireless

There has been an increasing demand for applications like multiplayer online gaming, where players residing in different parts of the world participate in the same gaming session through the Internet. Multicasting could prove to be an efficient way of providing necessary services for these applications. Furthermore, with the increasing popularity of handheld devices and mobile equipment, it is imperative to determine the best way to provide these services in a wireless environment. Due to very diverse requirements, it is necessary to investigate and discern the applicability of existing multicast protocols and qualify which is more suitable for which types of applications. This article provides a detailed description and comparison of IP-based wired and wireless multicast protocols. We hope that the discussion presented will be helpful to application developers in selecting an appropriate multicast protocol for their specific needs.

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