All things related to multicast

[Marshall Eubanks <>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Lauren Rotman 
> <>
> Date: January 19, 2009 2:33:01 PM EST
> To: 
>
> Subject: [I2-NEWS] Internet2 & Members Provide Advanced Networking  
> Resources for Online Viewing of Obama Inauguration
>
> Internet2 and Members Provide Advanced Networking Resources for  
> Online Viewing of Obama Inauguration
>
> Northwestern University To Provide Live Multicast For C-SPAN Full  
> Inauguration Coverage
>
> January 19, 2009 – The inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama  
> on January 20, 2009 is expected to be one of the most widely viewed  
> events in history both on televised networks and on the Internet.   
> The Internet2 community is working to provide special services and  
> support to enable institutions connected to the Internet2 Network  
> the ability to view the inauguration festivities in the highest  
> quality possible.
>
> Since 2000 Northwestern University, in partnership with Video  
> Furnace, has been providing live multicast streams of C-SPAN content  
> to the Internet2 community.  The Metropolitan Research and Education  
> Network (MREN) provides Northwestern with multicast connectivity to  
> the Internet2 backbone, where any multicast-enabled institution  
> should be able to receive the streams via its regional network  
> connector.  C-SPAN will provide live coverage of the inauguration  
> beginning at 6 am Eastern Time on Tuesday, January 20.
>
> The Northwestern C-SPAN streams are available for Mac OS X, Linux,  
> Windows,and Intel Solaris clients at <http://www.i2-multicast.northwestern.edu/ 
> >.Technical information and answers to frequently asked questions  
> are available at that site.
>
> A large majority of advanced regional and campus networks connected  
> to the Internet2 Network are today multicast-enabled.  IP  
> multicasting allows content providers like C-SPAN to simultaneously  
> broadcast a single stream of data to any number of end users. Under  
> the traditional unicast model, each end user host would need to  
> create individual connections to a content server to receive the  
> data. For a highly publicized broadcast event like the inauguration,  
> this could mean the generation of hundreds of thousands of  
> simultaneous connections, which would cause much higher latency,  
> greatly degrade the viewer experience and significantly impact  
> performance of the Internet. Because live video content requires  
> high quality of service and consumes a significant amount of  
> bandwidth, multicasting is a far more efficient means of delivering  
> this content.
>
> To determine if your institution is connected to the Internet2  
> Network and able to receive multicast streams – please visit the  
> Internet2 Detective: http://detective.internet2.edu/.
>
> In addition, through its Commercial Peering Service, the Internet2  
> Network peers with a number of commercial service and content  
> providers.  In doing so, the Internet2 Network will be able to  
> provide high capacity transport for various other unicast and  
> multicast streams of the inauguration originating from these  
> sources. Internet2 is encouraging members who have questions about  
> their multicast streams to contact their regional connector - http://www.internet2.edu/pubs/networkmap-connectors-participants.pdf
>
> The Internet2 Network Operations Center (NOC) will make any  
> questions or issues related to the inauguration coverage a priority  
> and will work with regional connectors as necessary to ensure  
> streams are operational.
>
> Media Contact: Lauren Rotman, Internet2,   
> archives are available at:
> https://mail.internet2.edu/wws/arc/i2-news
>
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