All things related to multicast

[John Lyons <>]

Hi Lenny,

> It strikes me as odd that lack of snooping could CAUSE mcast to not be 
> deployed and used.  Lack of snooping is only a problem when there's too 
> much mcast (and one could argue that's a good sign for mcast deployment- 
> there's too much mcast!).

 This strikes me as a very dangerous statement, I can think of very few 
 situations where flooding multicast is acceptable but many many more 
 where it is completely unacceptable. 
  
> It's also been my experience that operators (and humans in general) are 
> generally not proactive enough to delay the deployment of a compelling 
> service bc of the anticipation of a potential problem down the road.  It's 
> usually some other, more pressing reason.

 This is not a "potential problem", Lack of snooping is a complete show
 stopper when it comes to rolling out multicast in the vast majority of
 networks (particularly outside of NRENs and connected institutions).

 John