All things related to multicast

["William F. Maton Sotomayor" <>]

On Tue, 1 Apr 2008, Frank Fulchiero wrote:

> Hi, not sure there is any interest in discussing this problem, but I am 
> concerned that we have these great multicast networks, but it's hard to 
> figure out when there are compelling, or any, programs to watch. We seem to
[snip]
> Then, there is no modern SAP server, it seems, that can be used by 
> institutions that need one, especially for the more efficient H.264 codec. I 
> accidentally created a nasty SAP storm a few weeks ago when I  changed just a 
> few parameters in miniSAPserver. It would be useful if I2, the Commons, or an 
> institution could offer to host SAPs, even at a cost, for those of us that 
> don't have the resources to set up a SAP server for just a few streams.

I think this would be useful to have, and I have seen similar services 
come and unfortunately go either due to conclusions of various research 
efforts or they fall into disrepair due to a lack of maintenance.  So the 
problem isn't that the tools haven't been created, it's making sure they 
are reliably maintained.  I'd like to see something like the multicast 
beacon, but for picking up sessions automatically.  I assume (perhaps 
wrongly) that those systems running the beacon are more than likely all 
transmitting something (but what is the question).

(Note, I'm not proposing that the multicast beacon DAST built some time 
ago be extended, but we probably need something that is similar to it.)

Second, I think you are seeking some sort of method to add a stream 
announcement either automatically (SAP comes to mind) or yourself, through 
some sort of submission mechanism so that it gets posted. That's another 
animal, but maybe something I2 could sponsor?

wfms