Sorta OT: IP Multicasting

  1.) Are there any pointers to URLs that deal with issues to set up for
both incoming and outgoing multicasts? I can't find many examples that
show this from an ISP point of view.

The best tutorial IP multicast training materials I'm aware of are those at
ftp://ftpeng.cisco.com/ipmulticast/training/index.html

If you're looking for something more cookbook, I think the Internet2/Abilene
multicast cookbook at http://www.abilene.iu.edu/mccook.html is also a nice
resource (although obviously it is most useful if you are connecting via
Internet2/Abilene).

2.) Is it worth my effort? In other words, what % of the internet
audience is capable of receiving multicast IP from an audio feed?

One data point is that there are over 4600 MBGP prefixes getting advertised
(see, for example Marshall Eubanks' presentation at
http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0110/ppt/eubanks/sld011.htm). Whether or not
that's enough of an audience to make IP multicast worthwhile is a decision
you'll have to make for yourself.

But if nothing else, by enabling IP multicast, you should be able to receive
technical content such as the NANOG meetings, IETF meetings, etc. (which I
would assert is worthwhile in and of itself).

  3.) Are there any examples of audio feeds that use Multicast I can test
with?

The University of Oregon makes KWAX (classical radio) available via IP
multicast; if you are using IP/TV or a compatible client, select the
session "UO Presents KWAX Classical Radio"), and we also have a variety of
video sources up for folks to try.

Regards,

Joe

> 3.) Are there any examples of audio feeds that use
Multicast I can test
>with?

The University of Oregon makes KWAX (classical radio) available via IP
multicast; if you are using IP/TV or a compatible client, select the
session "UO Presents KWAX Classical Radio"), and we also have
a variety of
video sources up for folks to try.

Regards,

Joe

www.on-the-i.com has four channels that multicast music. I prefer
channel 2 but that's just me :slight_smile:

Mark

Yes, but how do I get those multicast packets to flow over my network? It
seems the Mbone has dropped of the face of the net and everyone still
doing multicast is doing it natively so if your transits aren't multicast
capable you're out of luck.

Hello;

    Thanks for the plug !

We have the multicast tester applet :

http://www.multicasttech.com/mt/

We have MPEG-4 video conten

http://www.multicasttech.com/otv

and we have On-the-I music audio.

The old MBone is dead - the best way is to get native multicast - look at the ISP list at

http://www.multicasttech.com/status/index.html and
http://www.multicasttech.com/status/mbgp.sum

If you need multicast and your ISP can't or won't deliver, please contact us and we will see what we can do.

You are a customer. Request it from your transit provider. If that still
doesnt work, take your money to someone who offers what you want.

In many cases the lack of customer demand prevents deployment in ISP networks
ways too often IMHO. Even if there are engineers who want to deploy it the
lack of demand from paying customers makes it a low priority task if
something happens at all.

I also experienced that people who want multicast from their upstream give
up too soon. Sales and account reps are sometimes "confused" about multicast.

Installing tunnels won't solve the problem. I even believe the opposite is
true: There is less "pressure" on the transit ISPs from their customers to
deploy multicast and offer it to their customers.

-tb

> Yes, but how do I get those multicast packets to flow over my network? It
> seems the Mbone has dropped of the face of the net and everyone still
> doing multicast is doing it natively so if your transits aren't multicast
> capable you're out of luck.

You are a customer. Request it from your transit provider. If that still
doesnt work, take your money to someone who offers what you want.

Sure, if I _really_ want multicast I can do that. But the thing is, I
haven't actually used it, so how do I know if it's worth the trouble?

In many cases the lack of customer demand prevents deployment in ISP networks
ways too often IMHO. Even if there are engineers who want to deploy it the
lack of demand from paying customers makes it a low priority task if
something happens at all.

It would help if there was some way for customers to experience multicast
so they can see if this is something they want.

[multicasting]

It would help if there was some way for customers to experience multicast
so they can see if this is something they want.

Why not build a small LAN to try it out on?

If you can find other people who want to experiment with it at their
sites, you could set up tunnels to each other.