A recent topic got be to thinking... what ever happened to multicasting?
Am I mistaken or what, but it seems to have gone by the wayside as most services tout "on demand".
Or is it just waiting for IPv6 as no one implemented it on the IPv4 networks?
Even though bandwidth is still cheap, It seems that ISP's, broadcasters, and businesses would still want to pursue it. After all the huge pipes seem to be filling up with all the media out there (see below*.
Everyone still is told they need a broadcast server, or a big pipe, however, if the net supported multicasting directly you would need no more than a dsl or 128k connection.
Businesses are always complaining about the superboal, March Madness, and the olympics crashing there networks. (they don't mind lost productivity since the employees would be distracted either way). Businesses are paying for broadcast servers to serve there meetings, Podcasts, etc. DJ's are going to advertising heavy services only for users to block ads, and *ISP's are starting to limit or charge for large bandwidth users.
Why not push multicasting?
Is it being used and we don't know? Where do Proxy servers come in on this? Heck should (is) the high bandwidth user be charged if most of his traffic is within the same ISP (gaming, filesharing/Bittorrent, etc.) thus saving outside link bandwith. Ok granted it may slow a neighborhood down, but its got multiple fibers to each neighborhood so it saves a costly interconnection with another ISP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbone http://www.savetz.com/mbone/
Patrick M. BLA/LMT-- Communications & Media Consult -- Massage Therapist Answerette/PnM Resources -- Follow me #: 800-901-1089