1. ECE 544 Software Project 3: Description and Timeline
Akash Baid

2. Objective
Design and implement a specialized "k out of m" multicast routing protocol:
Each packet will have up to m destination addr.
Required to send packet to any k m destination
Routing protocol chooses the ‘best’ k destinations to send to and the ‘best’ multicast path
Project Format: Like an industry standards committee
Each group proposes a solution to the class
Class as a whole combines proposals for final draft
All groups implements code based on this draft

3. Problem Details Max value of m =3 thus k can be 1,2 or 3.
No direct links between end-nodes
Loss probability on each link = p a R3 b R4
k = 2
Dest = a,b,c R2
Data R5 R6 R1 c

4. Proposal Requirements
Proposal consists of a protocol and related algorithms
Protocol includes:
How to address different network elements?
Fixed static address vs. Dynamic address allocation
Bit structure of address and how it is used
How do nodes/routers discover each other?
Periodic hello messages vs. hello with ACK
Provisioning or not for router/node failure?
What is the baseline routing protocol?
Link State vs. Distance Vector vs. Other variations of these
What ARQ scheme to use?

5. Proposal Requirements
Algorithmic component includes:
How to select best k out of m?
Depends on what info you have at each router
Based on unicast hop count vs. multicast hop count
How to multicast once you know the final nodes?
Whether to follow one of known multicast schemes?
Determining where to split the packet ?
What requirements from baseline routing protocol?

6. Project Requirements
Each group submits a proposal with specific details on both protocol and algorithms
Class reaches a consensus on each item after 2-3 rounds of discussions
Each group individually implements the agreed upon protocol through codes for nodes and routers
Final Demonstration involves inter-working between groups, e.g. node of group 1 with router of group 2
Final Report mentions implementation specific details from each group

7. Software Design Issues
Try to reuse relevant aspects of port-handling, ARQ, header processing from Projects 1 and 2
However do not be constrained by the code snippets provided to you, e.g. modify common.cpp
For routing protocol, aim to minimize total hops/ path costs but keep implementation complexity in mind
Credits for constructive participation in the standards meetings

8. Timeline April 2nd : Draft Proposal due by each group
April 6th :     1st Standards Meeting – presentations by
each group followed by discussion
April 9th : 2nd Standards Meeting – discussion on
remaining topics, voting for finalization
April 13th :    Circulation of Formal Standard Document
April 30th : Final Code Submission and Demo
May 2nd :      Project Report due

9. 1st Deadline: Draft Proposal
PPT with details of your proposed solution covering all the requirements
Follow the skeleton PPT provided on course site
Add any aspects that you feel is interesting to the design of the system
Slides from all group will be uploaded by April 2nd
April 6th : Each group presents their slides (10-15 min)
Discuss what’s the best way to do each task
Vote if can’t reach a consensus

10. Demo Demo network will have at least 4 nodes and 3 routers
Different nodes/routers can be initialized on different consoles on the same machine
The code should explicitly show (print out) how the routing table gets populated-no static table
Action taken by each entity on receipt of a packet should be shown
Network topology will be provided at the time of the demo

11. Final Submission Router program ( Source code + Makefile)
Sender and receiver program (Source code + Makefile)
Guide: How to run your program
Document for Protocol implementation and Performance Evaluation. It could contain, but not limited to, following topics:
Signalling definition
Routing/Discovery procedure
Interfaces of router-router and router-terminal (end-node)
Performance estimation/evaluation

12. Grades Participation in Standards Meetings – 4% Final Demo – 12%
Final Report – 4%