  Network architectures that can efficiently transport high quality, multicast
video are rapidly becoming a basic requirement of emerging multimedia
applications. The main problem complicating multicast video transport is
variation in network bandwidth constraints. An attractive solution to this
problem is to use an adaptive, multi-layered video encoding mechanism. In this
paper, we consider two such mechanisms for the support of video multicast; one
is a rate-based mechanism that relies on explicit rate congestion feedback from
the network, and the other is a credit-based mechanism that relies on
hop-by-hop congestion feedback. The responsiveness, bandwidth utilization,
scalability and fairness of the two mechanisms are evaluated through
simulations. Results suggest that while the two mechanisms exhibit performance
trade-offs, both are capable of providing a high quality video service in the
presence of varying bandwidth constraints.
