IGMP Proxy Uplink Selection for Multicast Bandwidth Efficiency
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In multicast communication, the existing IGMP proxy devices waste bandwidth and increase system overhead by receiving and replicating identical multicast packets over multiple uplinks, leading to inefficient data transmission.
Innovation Solution
Configuring multiple uplinks for an IGMP proxy device and designating a primary uplink for packet replication and transmission, with periodic checks to ensure availability and switch to standby uplinks if the primary becomes unavailable, thereby reducing bandwidth waste and resource consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple uplinks are configured for the IGMP proxy device to ensure availability, then reliability is improved, but bandwidth waste increases due to receiving and replicating identical multicast packets over multiple uplinks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designates one uplink as primary and others as standby before any failure occurs. The IGMP proxy device proactively configures uplink priorities and establishes a primary-standby relationship, so that when multiple uplinks are available, only the primary uplink is used for receiving and replicating multicast packets. This preliminary configuration prevents bandwidth waste while maintaining reliability through the standby mechanism.
2Reliability
If multiple uplinks are used for multicast packet reception, then reliability is improved, but system overhead increases due to replicating and sending packets over multiple uplinks
Solution Approach 1:
The system preemptively establishes a primary-standby uplink configuration, designating one uplink as primary for actual packet processing and others as standby for backup. This preliminary action simplifies the system operation by ensuring that the IGMP proxy device only replicates and forwards multicast packets received from the primary uplink, rather than processing packets from multiple active uplinks simultaneously, thus reducing system overhead while maintaining reliability.
3Reliability
If the IGMP proxy device receives multicast packets over multiple uplinks, then redundancy is improved, but bandwidth efficiency deteriorates due to sending repeated packets to multicast hosts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a preliminary primary-standby uplink configuration where only the primary uplink is designated for receiving and forwarding multicast packets. This configuration ensures that even though multiple uplinks are physically connected for redundancy, the system proactively uses only one uplink for actual data transmission, thereby eliminating repeated packet transmission and improving bandwidth efficiency while maintaining communication redundancy through the standby mechanism.
Data Source
AI summary
The embodiments of present invention disclose a method and a device for making uplink standby, including: configuring more than one uplink for an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) proxy device, and choosing one of the more than one uplink as a primary uplink; the IGMP proxy device replicating a multicast packet received over the primary uplink and sending the multicast packet replicated over a downlink to a multicast host. In the method provided by the embodiments of the present invention, only the primary uplink is used, which reduces the link bandwidth waste of the multicast host and improves the multicast data transmission efficiency. Flexible methods are adopted for checking the availability of the primary uplink so that the IGMP proxy device may detect in real time whether the primary uplink is available and choose a new primary uplink in time to guarantee the normal multicast communication.