This paper presents a new scalable application-layer multicast protocol called NICE, designed for low-bandwidth, data streaming applications with large receiver sets. NICE uses a hierarchical clustering approach to manage multicast peers and supports multiple data delivery trees with desirable properties. The protocol is evaluated through simulations and a wide-area testbed experiment. Simulations show that NICE outperforms the Narada protocol in terms of link stress (25% lower), end-to-end latency, and failure recovery. NICE achieves these results with significantly lower control traffic. In the wide-area testbed experiment, 32-100 member groups were tested across 8 sites. The results showed that average group members established and maintained low-latency paths with less than 1% packet loss. The average control overhead was less than 1 Kbps for groups of size 100. NICE's hierarchical structure allows for efficient control and data path management. The protocol maintains a constant degree bound for group members and achieves a logarithmic stretch bound. The control overhead is provably small (constant) and the protocol is robust to member failures. The protocol is designed to support large receiver sets and low-bandwidth real-time data streams, making it suitable for applications like news, sports, and stock market data. The NICE protocol is implemented using a distributed algorithm that creates a hierarchical structure for data delivery. The protocol maintains a hierarchy that allows for efficient control and data path management. The protocol is tested in simulations and a wide-area implementation, showing its scalability and efficiency. The protocol is able to handle large groups with low control overhead and maintains low latency and reliability. The results demonstrate that NICE is a scalable and efficient application-layer multicast protocol for large receiver sets and low-bandwidth data streams.This paper presents a new scalable application-layer multicast protocol called NICE, designed for low-bandwidth, data streaming applications with large receiver sets. NICE uses a hierarchical clustering approach to manage multicast peers and supports multiple data delivery trees with desirable properties. The protocol is evaluated through simulations and a wide-area testbed experiment. Simulations show that NICE outperforms the Narada protocol in terms of link stress (25% lower), end-to-end latency, and failure recovery. NICE achieves these results with significantly lower control traffic. In the wide-area testbed experiment, 32-100 member groups were tested across 8 sites. The results showed that average group members established and maintained low-latency paths with less than 1% packet loss. The average control overhead was less than 1 Kbps for groups of size 100. NICE's hierarchical structure allows for efficient control and data path management. The protocol maintains a constant degree bound for group members and achieves a logarithmic stretch bound. The control overhead is provably small (constant) and the protocol is robust to member failures. The protocol is designed to support large receiver sets and low-bandwidth real-time data streams, making it suitable for applications like news, sports, and stock market data. The NICE protocol is implemented using a distributed algorithm that creates a hierarchical structure for data delivery. The protocol maintains a hierarchy that allows for efficient control and data path management. The protocol is tested in simulations and a wide-area implementation, showing its scalability and efficiency. The protocol is able to handle large groups with low control overhead and maintains low latency and reliability. The results demonstrate that NICE is a scalable and efficient application-layer multicast protocol for large receiver sets and low-bandwidth data streams.