Resource allocation in a multicast tree

We consider how to allocate bandwidth in a multicast tree so as to optimize some global measure of performance. In our model each receiver has a budget to be used for bandwidth reservation on links along its path from the source, and each link has a cost function depending on the amount of total bandwidth reserved at the link by all receivers using that link. We formulate and solve a problem of allocating bandwidth in the multicast tree such that the sum of link costs is minimized.