HMR-new framework for hierarchical multicast routing algorithm and protocol

Group communication provides communication support for CSCW (computer supported cooperative work) systems. Multicast routing is one of the key techniques in the subject of group communication. This paper proposed a new framework for multicast routing algorithm and protocol, hierarchical multicast routing (HMR). The whole computer network is divided into hierarchical areas to compact the network topology and group membership information in order to provide scalability. With the compacting of network topology information, a very good result may be achieved for the calculation of shortest-path multicast delivery tree.