Bringing the MBONE Home: Experiences with Internal
Use of Multicast-Based Conferencing Tools
Archibald C.R. Mott
cisco Systems, Inc.
Abstract
Some authorities feel that increasing amounts of traffic,
rising popularity of multicast-based conferencing tools, and
increasing availability of multicast routing technology are
signals of impending doom for the Internet's Multicast Backbone
(MBONE). However, they are also clear signals that there is a
very real demand for the services of which they are a result:
real-time, multipoint, multimedia interaction between network
users. Whether or not the utility of the MBONE itself is drawing
to a close, it is a simple step to draw parallels between the
demands of users on the Internet and the demands of users on a
large corporate network, and to see that the same tools in use on
the MBONE can be used to provide an important service in a
corporate network environment.
This paper will describe the implementation of a widely
distributed conferencing system based on IP multicast networking
and freely available conferencing tools. It will describe the
network topology and routing technology employed, the scope of
the system, some challenges encountered in implementing the
system, the tools used in the implementation, real examples of
the use of the system, future plans for the system and an
exploration of some potential pitfalls of the system. The
information presented in this paper is based on experiences
gained in deploying the system on the Engineering departmental
networks at Cisco Systems. Opinions expressed in this paper are
those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions
of Cisco Systems.
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