All things related to multicast

[Bob Gerdes <>]

On Sat, 17 Jan 2009, Frank Fulchiero wrote:

> A little OT, but I see that the Inauguration may also be available on Ustream 
> and the iPhone/iPod Touch
>
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=2804
>
> It makes me wonder why the commercial services and commodity network 
> providers have not started using multicast more in high demand areas of video 
> delivery.
> Does it not make sense that it is a heck of a lot more efficient to stream 
> one stream, than thousands or millions?
>
> Is multicast becoming more popular on sections of the public internet?
> If not, why not? What is holding it back?
> Just wondering.

  Based on one test, a local group had regularly been using an off campus 
streaming service when we convinced them to try a multicast service for a 
major event. While evaluating how the off campus service worked, it turned 
out that they worked with Akamai for web caching. As we have Akamai caches 
on campus, this helped to get past our handoff (1 copy to cache) and put 
the load of distribution on our local network. We calculated that it was 
possible to cause problems, but the total number of viewers to various 
campuses never reached that level. This works for any ISPs that have 
Akamai.
   At a local conference, there was a presentation that discussed a local 
research project (coblitz - content delivery infrastructure) that was 
developed to disseminate the University Channel. It appears that this will 
be part of the GENI testing.
   Both of these are reasonable alternatives to multicast for many 
clusters of small numbers. Actually they reach off campus folks. Both 
models are functioning and alleviate network bandwidth concerns 
(especially at handoffs) based on current level of demand.
   March Madness (and local sporting events) really tests the limits of 
these approaches. Given that a large portion of the attention for this is 
on campus, it would be interesting if somehow Internet2 and the likely 
schools could convince the streaming service to offer up a multicast to 
Internet2 schools. Certainly, whatever the numbers have been, multicast 
thru Internet2 could easily help them reach double or triple the numbers 
without similar infrastructure upgrades. It should be in their interests 
to double the number of eyes watching the game and it certainly would be 
in ours.

> Frank Fulchiero
> Digital Media Specialist
> Connecticut College