Les Questions Récurrentes (FAQ)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the Multicast Backbone (MBONE)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Casner, casner@isi.edu, 6-May-93
*** This file is venera.isi.edu:mbone/faq.txt ***
*** Corrections and Additions Requested ***
* What is the MBONE?
The MBONE is an outgrowth of the first two IETF "audiocast"
experiments in which live audio and video were multicast from the
IETF meeting site to destinations around the world. The idea is
to construct a semi-permanent IP multicast testbed to carry the
IETF transmissions and support continued experimentation between
meetings. This is a cooperative, volunteer effort.
The MBONE is a virtual network. It is layered on top of portions
of the physical Internet to support routing of IP multicast
packets since that function has not yet been integrated into many
production routers. The network is composed of islands that can
directly support IP multicast, such as multicast LANs like
Ethernet, linked by virtual point-to-point links called "tunnels".
The tunnel endpoints are typically workstation-class machines
having operating system support for IP multicast and running the
"mrouted" multicast routing daemon.
* How do IP multicast tunnels work?
IP multicast packets are encapsulated for transmission through
tunnels, so that they look like normal unicast datagrams to
intervening routers and subnets. A multicast router that wants to
send a multicast packet across a tunnel will prepend another IP
header, set the destination address in the new header to be the
unicast address of the multicast router at the other end of the
tunnel, and set the IP protocol field in the new header to be 4
(which means the next protocol is IP). The multicast router at
the other end of the tunnel receives the packet, strips off the
encapsulating IP header, and forwards the packet as appropriate.
Previous versions of the IP multicast software (before March 1993)
used a different method of encapsulation based on an IP Loose
Source and Record Route option. This method remains an option in
the new software for backward compatibility with nodes that have
not been upgraded. In this mode, the multicast router modifies
the packet by appending an IP LSRR option to the packet's IP
header. The multicast destination address is moved into the
source route, and the unicast address of the router at the far end
of the tunnel is placed in the IP Destination Address field. The
presence of IP options, including LSRR, may cause modern router
hardware to divert the tunnel packets through a slower software
processing path, causing poor performance. Therefore, use of the
new software and the IP encapsulation method is strongly
encouraged.
* What is the topology of the MBONE?
We anticipate that within a continent, the MBONE topology will be
a combination of mesh and star: the backbone and regional (or
mid-level) networks will be linked by a mesh of tunnels among
mrouted machines located primarily at interconnection points of
the backbones and regionals. Some redundant tunnels may be
configured with higher metrics for robustness. Then each regional
network will have a star hierarchy hanging off its node of the
mesh to fan out and connect to all the customer networks that want
to participate.
Between continents there will probably be only one or two tunnels,
preferably terminating at the closest point on the MBONE mesh. In
the US, this may be on the Ethernets at the two FIXes (Federal
Internet eXchanges) in California and Maryland. But since the
FIXes are fairly busy, it will be important to minimize the number
of tunnels that cross them. This may be accomplished using IP
multicast directly (rather than tunnels) to connect several
multicast routers on the FIX Ethernet.
* How is the MBONE topology going to be set up and coordinated?
The primary reason we set up the MBONE e-mail lists (see below)
was to coordinate the top levels of the topology (the mesh of
links among the backbones and regionals). This must be a
cooperative project combining knowledge distributed among the
participants, somewhat like Usenet. The goal is to avoid loading
any one individual with the responsibility of designing and
managing the whole topology, though perhaps it will be necessary
to periodically review the topology to see if corrections are
required.
The intent is that when a new regional network wants to join in,
they will make a request on the appropriate MBONE list, then the
participants at "close" nodes will answer and cooperate in setting
up the ends of the appropriate tunnels. To keep fanout down,
sometimes this will mean breaking an existing tunnel to inserting
a new node, so three sites will have to work together to set up
the tunnels.
To know which nodes are "close" will require knowledge of both the
MBONE logical map and the underlying physical network topology,
for example, the physical T3 NSFnet backbone topology map combined
with the network providers' own knowledge of their local topology.
Within a regional network, the network's own staff can
independently manage the tunnel fanout hierarchy in conjunction
with end-user participants. New end-user networks should contact
the network provider directly, rather than the MBONE list, to get
connected.
* What is the anticipated traffic level?
The traffic anticipated during IETF multicasts is 100-300Kb/s, so
500Kb/s seems like a reasonable design bandwidth. Between IETF
meetings, most of the time there will probably be no audio or
video traffic, though some of the background session/control
traffic may be present. A guess at the peak level of experimental
use might be 5 simultaneous voice conversations (64Kb/s each).
Clearly, with enough simultaneous conversations, we could exceed
any bandwidth number, but 500Kb/s seems reasonable for planning.
Note that the design bandwidth must be multiplied by the number of
tunnels passing over any given link since each tunnel carries a
separate copy of each packet. This is why the fanout of each
mrouted node should be no more than 5-10 and the topology should
be designed so that at most 1 or 2 tunnels flow over any T1 line.
While most MBONE nodes should connect with lines of at least T1
speed, it will be possible to carry restricted traffic over slower
speed lines. Each tunnel has an associated threshold against
which the packet's IP time-to-live (TTL) value is compared. By
convention in the IETF multicasts, higher bandwidth sources such
as video transmit with a smaller TTL so they can be blocked while
lower bandwidth sources such as compressed audio are allowed
through.
* Why should I (a network provider) participate?
To allow your customers to participate in IETF audiocasts and
other experiments in packet audio/video, and to gain experience
with IP multicasting for a relatively low cost.
* What technical facilities and equipment are required for a network
provider to join the MBONE?
Each network-provider participant in the MBONE provides one or
more IP multicast routers to connect with tunnels to other
participants and to customers. The multicast routers are
typically separate from a network's production routers since most
production routers don't yet support IP multicast. Most sites use
workstations running the mrouted program, but the experimental
MOSPF software for Proteon routers is an alternative (see MOSPF
question below).
It is best if the workstations can be dedicated to the multicast
routing function to avoid interference from other activities and
so there will be no qualms about installing kernel patches or new
code releases on short notice. Since most MBONE nodes other than
endpoints will have at least three tunnels, and each tunnel
carries a separate (unicast) copy of each packet, it is also
useful, though not required, to have multiple network interfaces
on the workstation so it can be installed parallel to the unicast
router for those sites with configurations like this:
+----------+
| Backbone |
| Node |
+----------+
|
------------------------------------------ External DMZ Ethernet
| |
+----------+ +----------+
| Router | | mrouted |
+----------+ +----------+
| |
------------------------------------------ Internal DMZ Ethernet
(The "DMZ" Ethernets borrow that military term to describe their
role as interface points between networks and machines controlled
by different entities.) This configuration allows the mrouted
machine to connect with tunnels to other regional networks over
the external DMZ and the physical backbone network, and connect
with tunnels to the lower-level mrouted machines over the internal
DMZ, thereby splitting the load of the replicated packets. (The
mrouted machine would not do any unicast forwarding.)
Note that end-user sites may participate with as little as one
workstation that runs the packet audio and video software and has
a tunnel to a network-provider node.
* What skills are needed to participate and how much time might have
to be devoted to this?
The person supporting a network's participation in the MBONE
should have the skills of a network engineer, but a fairly small
percentage of that person's time should be required. Activities
requiring this skill level would be choosing a topology for
multicast distribution with in the provider's network and
analyzing traffic flow when performance problems are identified.
To set up and run an mrouted machine will require the knowledge to
build and install operating system kernels. If you would like to
use a hardware platform other than those currently supported, then
you might also contribute some software implementation skills!
We will depend on participants to read mail on the appropriate
mbone mailing list and respond to requests from new networks that
want to join and are "nearby" to coordinate the installation of
new tunnel links. Similarly, when customers of the network
provider make requests for their campus nets or end systems to be
connected to the MBONE, new tunnel links will need to be added
from the network provider's multicast routers to the end systems
(unless the whole network runs MOSPF).
Part of the resources that should be committed to participate
would be for operations staff to be aware of the role of the
multicast routers and the nature of multicast traffic, and to be
prepared to disable multicast forwarding if excessive traffic is
found to be causing trouble. The potential problem is that any
site hooked into the MBONE could transmit packets that cover the
whole MBONE, so if it became popular as a "chat line", all
available bandwidth could be consumed. Steve Deering plans to
implement multicast route pruning so that packets only flow over
those links necessary to reach active receivers; this will reduce
the traffic level. This problem should be manageable through the
same measures we already depend upon for stable operation of the
Internet, but MBONE participants should be aware of it.
* Which workstation platforms can support the mrouted program?
The most convenient platform is a Sun SPARCstation simply because
that is the machine used for mrouted development. An older
machine (such as a SPARC-1 or IPC) will provide satisfactory
performance as long as the tunnel fanout is kept in the 5-10
range. The platforms for which software is available:
Machines Operating Systems Network Interfaces
-------- ----------------- ------------------
Sun SPARC SunOS 4.1.1,2,3 ie, le, lo
Vax or Microvax 4.3+ or 4.3-tahoe de, qe, lo
Decstation 3100,5000 Ultrix 3.1c, 4.1, 4.2a ln, se, lo
Silicon Graphics All ship with multicast
There is an interested group at DEC that may get the software
running on newer DEC systems with Ultrix and OSF/1. Also, some
people have asked about support for the RS-6000 and AIX or other
platforms. Those interested could use the mbone list to coordinate
collaboration on porting the software to these platforms!
An alternative to running mrouted is to run the experimental MOSPF
software in a Proteon router (see MOSPF question below).
* Where can I get the IP multicast software and mrouted program?
The IP multicast software is available by anonymous FTP from the
vmtp-ip directory on host gregorio.stanford.edu. Here's a
snapshot of the files:
ipmulti-pmax31c.tar
ipmulti-sunos41x.tar.Z Binaries & patches for SunOS 4.1.1,2,3
ipmulticast-ultrix4.1.patch
ipmulticast-ultrix4.2a-binary.tar
ipmulticast-ultrix4.2a.patch
ipmulticast.README [** Warning: out of date **]
ipmulticast.tar.Z Sources for BSD
You don't need kernel sources to add multicast support. Included
in the distributions are files (sources or binaries, depending
upon the system) to modify your BSD, SunOS, or Ultrix kernel to
support IP multicast, including the mrouted program and special
multicast versions of ping and netstat.
Silicon Graphics includes IP multicast as a standard part of their
operating system. The mrouted executable and ip_mroute kernel
module are not installed by default; you must install the
eoe2.sw.ipgate subsystem and "autoconfig" the kernel to be able to
act as a multicast router. In the IRIX 4.0.x release, there is a
bug in the kernel code that handles multicast tunnels; an
unsupported fix is available via anonymous ftp from sgi.com in the
sgi/ipmcast directory. See the README there for details on
installing it.
IP multicast is also included in Sun's Solaris 2.1 and in BSD 4.4
when/if it is released.
The most common problem encountered when running this software is
with hosts that respond incorrectly to IP multicasts. These
responses typically take the form of ICMP network unreachable,
redirect, or time-exceeded error messages, which are a nuisance
but mostly harmless until we get several such hosts each sending a
packet in response to 50 packets per second of packet audio.
These responses are in violation of the current IP specification
and, with luck, will disappear over time.
* What documentation is available?
Documentation on the IP multicast software is included in the
distribution on gregorio.stanford.edu (ipmulticast.README).
RFC1112 specifies the "Host Extensions for IP Multicasting".
Multicast routing algorithms are described in the paper "Multicast
Routing in Internetworks and Extended LANs" by S. Deering, in the
Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM '88 Conference.
There is an article in the June 1992 ConneXions about the first
IETF audiocast from San Diego, and a later version of that article
is in the July 1992 ACM SIGCOMM CCR. A reprint of the latter
article is available by anonymous FTP from venera.isi.edu in the
file pub/ietf-audiocast-article.ps. There is no article yet about
later IETF audio/videocasts.
* Where can I get a map of the MBONE?
Two Postscript files are available on parcftp.xerox.com:
/pub/net-research/mbone-map-{big,small}.ps
The small one fits on one page and the big one is four pages that
have to be taped together for viewing. This map is produces from
topology information collected automatically from all MBONE nodes
running the up-to-date released of the mrouted program (some are
not yet updated so links beyond them cannot be seen). Pavel
Curtis at Xerox PARC has added the mechanisms to automatically
collect the map data and produce the map. (Thanks also to Paul
Zawada of NCSA who manually produced an earlier map of the MBONE.)
* What is DVMRP?
DVMRP is the Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol; it is the
routing protocol implemented by the mrouted program. An earlier
version of DVMRP is specified in RFC-1075. However, the version
implemented in mrouted is quite a bit different from what is
specified in that RFC (different packet format, different tunnel
format, additional packet types, and more). It maintains
topological knowledge via a distance-vector routing protocol (like
RIP, described in RFC-1058), upon which it implements a multicast
forwarding algorithm called Truncated Reverse Path Broadcasting.
DVMRP suffers from the well-known scaling problems of any
distance-vector routing protocol.
* What is MOSPF?
MOSPF is the IP multicast extension to the OSPF routing protocol,
currently an Internet Draft. John Moy has implemented MOSPF for
the Proteon router. A network of routers running MOSPF can
forward IP multicast packets directly, sending no more than one
copy over any link, and without the need for any tunnels. This is
how IP multicasting within a domain is supposed to work.
* Can MOSPF and DVMRP interoperate?
At the Boston IETF, John Moy agreed to add support for DVMRP to his
MOSPF implementation. He hopes to have this completed "well in
advance of the next IETF". When it is finished, you will be able
to set up a DVMRP tunnel from an mrouted to Proteon a router,
glueing together the DVMRP with MOSPF domains (the MOSPF domains
will look pretty like ethernets to the multicast topology).
The advantages to linking DVMRP with MOSPF are: fewer configured
tunnels, and less multicast traffic on the links inside the MOSPF
domain. There are also a couple potential drawbacks: increasing
the size of DVMRP routing messages, and increasing the number of
external routes in the OSPF systems. However, it should be
possible to alleviated these drawbacks by configuring area address
ranges and by judicious use of MOSPF default routing.
* How do I join the MBONE?
STEP 1: If you are an end-user site (e.g., a campus), please
contact your network provider. If your network provider is not
participating in the MBONE, you can arrange to connect to some
nearby point that is on the MBONE, but it is far better to
encourage your network provider to participate to avoid
overloading links with duplicate tunnels to separate end nodes.
Below is a list of some network providers who are participating in
the MBONE, but this list is likely not to be complete.
AlterNet ops@uunet.uu.net CERFnet mbone@cerf.net
CICNet mbone@cic.net
CONCERT mbone@concert.net
Cornell swb@nr-tech.cit.cornell.edu
JvNCnet multicast@jvnc.net
Los Nettos prue@isi.edu
NCAR mbone@ncar.ucar.edu
NCSAnet mbone@cic.net
NEARnet nearnet-eng@nic.near.net
OARnet oarnet-mbone@oar.net
PSCnet pscnet-admin@psc.edu
PSInet mbone@nisc.psi.net
SESQUINET sesqui-tech@sesqui.net
SDSCnet mbone@sdsc.edu
SURAnet multicast@sura.net
UNINETT mbone-no@uninett.no
If you are a network povider, send a message to the -request
address of the mailing list for your region to be added to that
list for purposes of coordinating setup of tunnels, etc:
mbone-eu: mbone-eu-request@sics.se Europe
mbone-jp: mbone-jp-request@wide.ad.jp Japan
mbone-korea: mbone-korea-request@mani.kaist.ac.kr Korea
mbone-na: mbone-na-request@isi.edu North America
mbone-oz: mbone-oz-request@internode.com.au Australia
mbone: mbone-request@isi.edu other
These lists are primarily aimed at network providers who would be
the top level of the MBONE organizational and topological
hierarchy. The mailing list is also a hierarchy; mbone@isi.edu
forwards to the regional lists, then those lists include expanders
for network providers and other institutions. Mail of general
interest should be sent to mbone@isi.edu, while regional topology
questions should be sent to the appropriate regional list.
Individual networks may also want to set up their own lists for
their customers to request connection of campus mrouted machines
to the network's mrouted machines. Some that have done so were
listed above.
STEP 2: Set up an mrouted machine, build a kernel with IP
multicast extensions added, and install the kernel and mrouted;
or, install MOSPF software in a Proteon router.
STEP 3: Send a message to the mbone list for your region asking to
hook in, then coordinate with existing nodes to join the tunnel
topology.
* How is a tunnel configured?
Mrouted automatically configures itself to forward on all
multicast-capable interfaces, i.e. interfaces that have the
IFF_MULTICAST flag set (excluding the loopback "interface"), and
it finds other mrouteds directly reachable via those interfaces.
To override the default configuration, or to add tunnel links to
other mrouteds, configuration commands may be placed in
/etc/mrouted.conf. There are two types of configuration command:
phyint [disable] [metric ] [threshold ]
tunnel [metric ] [threshold ]
The phyint command can be used to disable multicast routing on the
physical interface identified by local IP address , or
to associate a non-default metric or threshold with the specified
physical interface. Phyint commands should precede tunnel
commands.
The tunnel command can be used to establish a tunnel link between
local IP address and remote IP address ,
and to associate a non-default metric or threshold with that
tunnel. The tunnel must be set up in the mrouted.conf files of
both ends before it will be used. The keyword "srcrt" can be
added just before the keyword "metric" to choose source routing
for the tunnel if necessary because the other end has not yet
upgraded to use IP encapsulation. Upgrading is highly encouraged.
If the methods don't match at the two ends, the tunnel will appear
to be up according to mrouted typeouts, but no multicast packets
will flow.
The metric is the "cost" associated with sending a datagram on the
given interface or tunnel; it may be used to influence the choice
of routes. The metric defaults to 1. Metrics should be kept as
small as possible, because mrouted cannot route along paths with a
sum of metrics greater than 31. When in doubt, the following
metrics are recommended:
LAN, or tunnel across a single LAN: 1
any subtree with only one connection point: 1
serial link, or tunnel across a single serial link: 1
multi-hop tunnel: 2 or 3
backup tunnels: sum of metrics on primary path + 1
The threshold is the minimum IP time-to-live required for a
multicast datagram to be forwarded to the given interface or
tunnel. It is used to control the scope of multicast datagrams.
(The TTL of forwarded packets is only compared to the threshold,
it is not decremented by the threshold. Every multicast router
decrements the TTL by 1.) The default threshold is 1.
Since the multicast routing protocol implemented by mrouted does
not yet prune the multicast delivery trees based on group
membership (it does something called "truncated broadcast", in
which it prunes only the leaf subnets off the broadcast trees), we
instead use a kludge known as "TTL thresholds" to prevent
multicasts from traveling along unwanted branches. This is NOT
the way IP multicast is supposed to work; MOSPF does it right, and
mrouted will do it right some day.
Before the November 1992 IETF we established the following
thresholds. The "TTL" column specifies the originating IP
time-to-live value to be used by each application. The "thresh"
column specifies the mrouted threshold required to permit passage
of packets from the corresponding application, as well as packets
from all applications above it in the table:
TTL thresh
--- ------
IETF chan 1 low-rate GSM audio 255 224
IETF chan 2 low-rate GSM audio 223 192
IETF chan 1 PCM audio 191 160
IETF chan 2 PCM audio 159 128
IETF chan 1 video 127 96
IETF chan 2 video 95 64
local event audio 63 32
local event video 31 1
It is suggested that a threshold of 128 be used initially, and
then raise it to 160 or 192 only if the 64 Kb/s voice is excessive
(GSM voice is about 18 Kb/s), or lower it to 64 to allow video to
be transmitted to the tunnel.
Mrouted will not initiate execution if it has fewer than two
enabled vifs, where a vif (virtual interface) is either a physical
multicast-capable interface or a tunnel. It will log a warning if
all of its vifs are tunnels, based on the reasoning that such an
mrouted configuration would be better replaced by more direct
tunnels (i.e., eliminate the middle man). However, to create a
hierarchical fanout for the MBONE, we will have mrouted
configurations that consist only of tunnels.
Once you have edited the mrouted.conf file, you must run mrouted
as root. See ipmulticast.README for more information.
* What hardware and software is required to receive audio?
The platform we've been primarily using is the Sun SPARCstation,
but also the SGI Indigo. You don't need any additional hardware
(assuming yours is new enough that it came with a microphone, else
you have to buy one). The audio coding is provided by the
built-in 64 Kb/s audio hardware plus software compression for
reduced data rates (32 Kb/s ADPCM, 13 Kb/s GSM, and 4.8 Kb/s LPC).
The software for packet audio and video is available by anonymous
FTP. In the future, we expect this or similar software to be
available for other platforms such as NeXT or Macintosh. One key
requirement, however, is that the host machine have IP multicast
software added to its kernel. You can add it now to SunOS 4.1.1
4.1.2, or 4.1.3; Sun includes it the standard kernel with Solaris
2.1 (though these programs may not yet run on Solaris).
A pre-release of the LBL audio tool "vat" is available by
anonymous FTP from ftp.ee.lbl.gov in the file vat.tar.Z. Included
are a binary suitable for use on any version of SPARCstation, and
a manual entry. Also available are dec-vat.tar.Z for the DEC 5000
and sgi-vat.tar.Z for the SGI Indigo. The authors, Van Jacobson
and Steve McCanne, say the source will be released "soon". You
may find that the vat tar file includes a patch for the kernel
file in_pcb.c. This has been superceded by a patch that is now
included in the IP multicast software release for SunOS. These
patches allow demultiplexing of separate multicast addresses so
that multiple copies of vat can be run for different conferences
at the same time.
In addition, a beta release of both binary and source for the
UMass audio tool NEVOT, written by Henning Schulzrinne, is
available by anonymous FTP from gaia.cs.umass.edu in the pub/nevot
directory (the filename may change from version to version).
NEVOT runs on the SPARCstation and on the SGI Indigo.
You can test vat or NEVOT point-to-point between two hosts with a
standard SunOS kernel, but to conference with multiple sites you
will need a kernel with IP multicast support added. IP multicast
invokes Ethernet multicast to reach hosts on the same subnet; to
link multiple subnets you can set up tunnels, assuming sufficient
bandwidth exists.
Once you build the SunOS kernel, you should make sure that the
kernel audio buffer size variable is patched from the standard
value of 1024 to be 160 decimal to match the audio packet size for
minimum delay. The IP multicast software release includes patched
versions of the audio driver modules, but if for some reason you
can't use them, you can use adb to patch the kernel as shown
below. These instructions are for SunOS 4.1.1 and 4.1.2; change
the variable name to amd_bsize for 4.1.3, or Dbri_recv_bsize for
the SPARC 10:
adb -k -w /vmunix /dev/mem
audio_79C30_bsize/W 0t160 (to patch the running kernel)
audio_79C30_bsize?W 0t160 (to patch kernel file on disk)
If the buffer size is incorrect, there will be bad breakup when
sound from two sites gets mixed for playback.
* What hardware and software is required to receive video?
No special hardware is required to receive the slow-frame-rate
video prevalent on the MBONE because the decoding and display is
done all in software. The data rate is typically 25-150 Kb/s. To
be able to send video requires a camera and a frame grabber. Any
camcorder with a video output will do. For monitor-top mounting,
the wide-angle range is most important. There is also a small
(about 2x2x5 inches) monochrome CCD camera suitable for desktop
video conference applications available for around $200 from
Stanley Howard Associates, Thousand Oaks, CA, phone 805-492-4842.
Subjectively, it seems to give a picture somewhat less crisp than
a typical camcorder, but sufficient for 320x240 resolution
software video algorithms. There are also color and infrared (for
low light, with IR LED illumination) models. The programs listed
below use the Sun VideoPix card to input video on the SPARCstation.
The video we used for the July 1992 IETF was the DVC (desktop
video conferencing) program from BBN, written by Paul Milazzo and
Bob Clements. This program has since become a product, called
PictureWindow. Contact picwin-sales@bbn.com for more information.
For the November 1992 IETF and several events since then, we have
used two other programs. The first is the "nv" (network video)
program from Ron Frederick at Xerox PARC, available from
parcftp.xerox.com in the file pub/net-research/nv.tar.Z. An 8-bit
visual is recommended to see the full image resolution, but nv
also implements dithering of the image for display on 1-bit
visuals (monochrome displays). Shared memory will be used if
present for reduced processor load, but display to remote X
servers is also possible. On the SPARCstation, the VideoPix card
is required to originate video. Sources are to available,
as are binary versions for the SGI Indigo and DEC 5000 platforms.
Also available from INRIA is the IVS program written by Thierry
Turletti and Christian Huitema. It uses a more sophisticated
compression algorithm, a software implementation of the H.261
standard. It produces a lower data rate, but because of the
processing demands the frame rate is much lower and the delay
higher. System requirements: SUN SPARCstation or SGI Indigo,
video grabber (VideoPix Card for SPARCstations), video camera,
X-Windows with Motif or Tk toolkit. Binaries and sources are
available for anonymous ftp from avahi.inria.fr in the file
pub/videoconference/ivs.tar.Z or ivs_binary_sparc.tar.Z.
* How can I find out about teleconference events?
Many of the audio and video transmissions over the MBONE are
advertised in "sd", the session directory tool developed by
Van Jacobson at LBL. Session creators specify all the address
parameters necessary to join the session, then sd multicasts the
advertisement to be picked up by anyone else running sd. The
audio and video programs can be invoked with the right parameters
by clicking a button in sd. From ftp.ee.lbl.gov, get the file
sd.tar.Z or sgi-sd.tar.Z or dec-sd.tar.Z.
Schedules for IETF audio/videocasts and some other events are
announced on the IETF mailing list (send a message to
ietf-request@cnri.reston.va.us to join). Some events are also
announced on the rem-conf mailing list, along with discussions of
protocols for remote conferencing (send a message to
rem-conf-request@es.net to join).
* Have there been any movements towards productizing any of this?
The network infrastructure will require resource management
mechanisms to provide low delay service to real-time applications
on any significant scale. That will take a few years. Until that
time, product-level robustness won't be possible. However,
vendors are certainly interested in these applications, and
products may be targeted initially to LAN operation.
IP multicast host extensions are being added to some vendors'
operating systems. That's one of the first steps. Proteon has
announced IP multicast support in their routers. No network
provider is offering production IP multicast service yet.
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