Abstract

In order to provide reliable IP multicast services, multiple Reliable Multicast Transport Protocols (RMTPs) have been developed. However, because there exist different definitions of "reliability", no single RMTP can meet all requirements of different applications. The research focus of RMTPs has changed from individual protocols to the protocol building blocks. This change of focus provides impetus for this thesis describing RMTP implementation building blocks. The Meta-Transport Library (MTL) was designed to implement RMTPs. Nonetheless, due to its limits, the MTL is insufficient to be used as the basis for the RMTP implementation building blocks. The RMTP implementation building blocks presented in this thesis provide a framework and a full set of common components that can be used to implement a wide range of RMTPs.