System for Multicast File Transfer

The distribution of big files over the network from a single source to a large number of recipients is not efficient by using standard client-server or even peer-to peer file transfer protocols. Thus, the transfer of a hierarchy of big files to multiple destinations can be optimized in terms of bandwidth usage and data storage reads by using multicast networking. In order to achieve that, a simple application layer protocol can be imagined. It uses multicast UDP as transport and it provides a mechanism for data ordering and retransmission. Some security problems are also considered in this protocol, because at this time the Internet standards supporting multicast security are still in the development stage.