Re: Multicast on 21CN

DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:

What customers do care about is services though, and if Virgin are going to be multicasting an HD channel to their users when they start supporting multicast later this year at the same time as they launch their 50 Mbps broadband package, so people should also be able to get the BBC's multicast streams as well, which should inclube the BBC and ITV TV channels and the BBC HD channel might not be too far over the horizon from being multicast - if Virgin can multicast an HD channel now there's no reason why they couldn't do the BBC HD channel to their customers now either if the BBC let them.


Exactly. There is nothing stopping any ISP (Virgin included) from offering the BBC streams, provided they "talk" to the BBC via multicast.

Once that stream enters their network, it makes no difference to the end user whether it continues to be multicast all the way to the cab/exchange or is split up into a stream for each viewer.

The multicast all the way to the user option for the ISP is probably more efficient and cheaper but isn't required. It may be that it isn't possible to do that because they don't control the whole network (eg. for a normal ADSL ISP) or because it is too expensive to enable (replacing non-multicast capable equipment).

The end user doesn't care, and as long as the ISP sets up multicast between themselves and the BBC they will get their video/radio stream.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Multicast > 5-10 years time?
    ... multicast and therefore it was hogging BBC bandwidth!). ... I take it that the ISPs can implement multicast so that there's only ... stream to the lowest common point in the network where it finally ...
    (alt.radio.digital)
  • Re: Roaming / offchannel enhancements for broadcast / multicast frames
    ... on receiving it" doesn't personally wash with me. ... I spent a lot of effort in an an earlier life in supporting multicast ... situations it might be better from the standpoint of ultimate channel ... home channel above scanning". ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • multicast routing issue?
    ... I have an application which should join a multicast channel at beginning ... But my problem is that if I join the channel from the VPN router, I can receive the traffic ok. ... But the request to join the channel from my program didn't get to the router and forward alone. ...
    (comp.unix.admin)
  • Packet reordering and blocking problem at gigabit with 2.4 kernel
    ... I am developing application level multicast router with Xeon processor. ... The system lost lots of packets and reordered the packets, ... Every channel sends 6Mbps with 2048 bytes packet. ... I heard that SMP machines has inherant reordering issues, ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: Multicast on 21CN
    ... to be multicasting an HD channel to their users when they start supporting multicast later this year at the same time as they launch their 50 Mbps broadband package, so people should also be able to get the BBC's multicast streams as well, which should inclube the BBC and ITV TV channels and the BBC HD channel might not be too far over the horizon from being multicast - if Virgin can multicast an HD channel now there's no reason why they couldn't do the BBC HD channel to their customers now either if the BBC let them. ...
    (uk.telecom.broadband)