All things related to multicast

["Marshall Eubanks" <>]

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:34:22 -0500
 Bruce Curtis 
<>
 wrote:
> 
> On Oct 11, 2005, at 6:40 PM, Richard Mavrogeanes wrote:
> 
> > I think the unicast rollover described in the attached has value  
> > and that it can address the issue of dependable service to drive  
> > the bandwidth consumption that multicast can ultimately solve.  I  
> > can see the ISP and/or IT staff saying "we've got to do something  
> > about all these idential packets going to 1,000 users", and I  
> > wonder if rollover with multicast bias is at least "an" answer.
> 
>    My memory may be going but it seems to me that this is the way the  
> Microsoft Video player worked, at least a year or two ago, I  

Windows Media had this (in ASF, not for RTP), and Broadcast.com  used it, way
back in 1998 / 99. I assume the capability  is still  there.

Marshall


> distinctly remember reading about it and trying it out on a stream.  
> (Perhaps a stream from an i2 meeting?).  But since then I worked with  
> the Anthropology department here when they were looking at using a  
> Microsoft server to serve a multicast stream.  At that time although  
> it was listed as having he capability it was unclear on how to  
> configure a Microsoft server to source multicast.  In this particular  
> example the local department was partnering with the Research Channel  
> and wanted to source multicast only, we don't currently have the  
> bandwidth to source lots of unicast copies of this stream.  But I  
> agree that in many cases it is desirable to have the user's client  
> try multicast first and then fall back to unicast.
>    I have also helped another local department set up multicast for  
> streams on a Real server and I believe that is the way the Real  
> client worked also, it would fail over to unicast if the multicast  
> stream was unavailable,  again a couple of years ago.
> 
>    I just sent email to another University in our state suggesting  
> that they looking to multicasting some content they stream on some  
> weekends, ideally a slightly higher bandwidth and higher quality  
> stream via multicast and have it fall back to the regular speed  
> unicast that they can support with their bandwidth.
> 
>    At a conference hosted here yesterday one of the Keynote speakers  
> was from XM Satellite and he mentioned that some of their content  
> will now be available via AOL and at least one other web radio site.   
> I agree that it might take less convincing to get content like that  
> multicast if the content providers can be shown that it is  
> transparent to the end users (with an automatic fall back to unicast)
> 
> ---
> Bruce Curtis                         
> 
> Certified NetAnalyst II                701-231-8527
> North Dakota State University
>