LAN multicast is now an essential service for users of the MBone and other IP multicast tools. Traditional IP multicast has travelled over two types of subnetwork: point-to-point links and subnetworks with inherent multicast capability, such as Ethernet and token ring. More recent LANs may be arbitrary mesh networks with no built-in, efficient, multicast capability. The authors describe a successful implementation of multicasting over a 640 Mbit/s, wormhole-routing LAN. The implementation is integrated with the wider-area multicast IP service. Consideration is given to practical issues such as interoperation with existing multicast routing protocols and software, and multicast-group setup latencies.

Wormhole routing networks have become increasingly popular for low latency, high-speed interconnection of supercomputer and workstation clusters. An example is the Supercomputer SuperNet (SSN) at UCLA, which interconnects supercomputers across campus and metropolitan area distances. The SSN employs a two-level network architecture in which an optical backbone network interconnects several high-speed, wormhole-routing local area networks (Myrinets). The SSN applications such as scientific visualization and rendering require that the network support reliable delivery of traffic characterized by quality of service (QoS) parameters. Motivated by this requirement, we investigate QoS support in Myrinet-like high-speed, wormhole routing networks. Since native Myrinet protocols do not provide QoS support, we explore several novel strategies including (a) the use of a separate subnet for carrying such traffic (along with source pacing), (b) the overlay of a virtual synchronous system on the asynchronous network, and (c) the introduction of virtual channels. We discuss the tradeoffs among the different options and evaluate them via selected simulation experiments.

Wormhole routing LANs are emerging as an effective solution for high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnects in distributed computing and cluster computing applications. An important example is the 640 Mb/s crossbar-based Myrinet. A key property of conventional LANs, which is valuable for many distributed applications, is transparent, reliable network-level multicast. It is desirable to retain this property also in wormhole LANs. Unfortunately, efficient, reliable multicasting in wormhole LANs is problematic because of the potential for deadlocks. As a consequence, current multicasting implementations typically consist of repeated unicast or assume a priori buffer reservations. These solutions, however, tend to increase latency and do not scale well.In this paper we address the problem of providing transparent, reliable, efficient network level multicasting in the wormhole LAN. We describe several protocols for achieving deadlock-free, reliable multicasting using restricted routing and fast buffer reservation techniques. Tradeoffs involving complexity and performance of various solutions are discussed, and are illustrated using simulation. A simple multicast implementation for Myrinet has been carried out, and experimental results are presented.