All things related to multicast

[Rick Summerhill <>]

On Wed, 3 Oct 2001, Lucy E. Lynch wrote:

> Marshall -
> 
> Nodes -
> 
> http://hydra.uits.iu.edu/~abilene/traffic/
> 
> i.e. the big connection points (Denver/LA/HOuston/Seattle/New York etc.)

I think the real point to this thread, is not just the connectors
that are multicast enabled, but rather what happens down towards
the edges.  In our gigapop, we've been multicast enabled for a long
time, and we require any connections of member sites and/or state
networks behind us to also be multicast enabled.   We just connected
a new I2 member and the initial setup included multicast to us.

However, we find that multicast doesn't often reach the edges.
Busy campus administrators, old equipment, and budgets often get
in the way.  Moreover, administration of the network where a
researcher is located may not be assigned to the central campus
group, but rather the departmental administrator with no knowledge
or understanding of multicast.

We did a video BoF after the presentations yesterday and queried
people about how they viewed the presentations.  Some tried H.323,
but most simply used Real, even those campuses that are multicast
enabled ("I can't get it to my building yet", was a common complaint).

The same problem will almost certainly exist when we emphasize IPv6.

--Rick

--
Rick Summerhill                          Executive Director, GPN
5008 Canyon Road                         

Manhattan, KS 66503                      Cell: 785-341-7878
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