All things related to multicast

[Alan Crosswell <>]

Dov,

What products are people using in your space?  Ethernet set-top boxes?  Which 
ones?  Anything that could be applied in the enterprise.  Many of us are looking 
at converging campus CATV.
/a

Dov Zimring wrote:
> I work in the world of commercial IP Video deployments over DSL and
> Fiber, both of which utilize multicast for distribution of  "broadcast"
> content.  Today the set top boxes are typically IGMPv2 and the service
> provider's subscriber interface performs the function of an IGMP
> router.  Most of the equipment used in this space has per port interface
> statistics which allow you to collect tracking info as a function of
> network management.  To validate bandwidth engineering assumptions
> studies have been done which look at per device group membership
> regularly throughout the day.  Viewing trends are available per channel
> and at a given time of day.  To date I've only seen this info used for
> network monitoring and engineering purposes but it clearly lends itself
> to Nielsen market research type opportunities.  The statistics cover
> 100% of your viewing population, if you want to know exactly how many
> impressions a certain add made - you'd have the info at your fingertips.
>
> The DSL Forum is hashing out a new architecture for migrating from
> legacy low capacity ATM networks to IP/Ethernet networks in the telco
> carrier markets.  Conditional access, admission control and security are
> a few of the many issues they attempt to address in this.  Fast channel
> change times are critical for end user enjoyment and thus more important
> then conditional access so encryption is required end to end for content
> security and electronic program guides on a set top box won't allow the
> remote to select a channel that is not included in the purchased package
> but nothing prevents a hacker from plugging in a laptop and scanning all
> available multicast groups to see what's really there.  They can join
> groups but will end up with encrypted content.  Admission control is the
> most interesting problem right now.  With HDTV, DVR, VoD, VoIP and
> gaming all contending for last mile bandwidth, how do you inform the end
> user that the TV upstairs can't switch from that standard def to that
> high def channel because Johnny just purchased a time slot on a network
> intensive multi-player game?