Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?

Thu Jan 11 04:19:00 UTC 2007

It seems to me that multi-cast is a technical solution for the bandwidth 
consumption problems precipitated by real-time Internet video broadcast, 
but it doesn't seem to me that the bulk of current (or even future) 
Internet video traffic is going to be amenable to distribution via 
multi-cast - or, at least, separate and apart from whatever happens with 
multi-cast, a huge and growing volume of video traffic will be flowing 
over the 'net...

I don't think consumers are going to accept having to wait for a 
"scheduled broadcast" of whatever piece of video content they want to 
view - at least if the alternative is being able to download and watch 
it nearly immediately. That said, for the most popular content with the 
widest audience, scheduled multi-cast makes sense... especially when the 
alternative is waiting for a large download to finish - contrawise, it 
doesn't seem reasonable to be constantly multi-casting *every* piece of 
video content anyone might ever want to watch (that in itself would 
consume an insane amount of bandwidth). How many pieces of video content 
are there on YouTube? How many more can we expect to emerge over the 
next decade, given the ever decreasing cost of entry for reasonably 
decent video production?

All of which, to me, leaves the fundamental issue of how the upsurge in 
traffic is going to be handled left unresolved.

Thomas

Simon Lockhart wrote:
> On Tue Jan 09, 2007 at 07:52:02AM +0000, Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com wrote:
>   
>> Given that the broadcast model for streaming content
>> is so successful, why would you want to use the
>> Internet for it? What is the benefit?
>>     
>
> How many channels can you get on your (terrestrial) broadcast receiver?
>
> If you want more, your choices are satellite or cable. To get cable, you 
> need to be in a cable area. To get satellite, you need to stick a dish on 
> the side of your house, which you may not want to do, or may not be allowed
> to do.
>
> With IPTV, you just need a phoneline (and be close enough to the exchange/CO
> to get decent xDSL rate). In the UK, I'm already delivering 40+ channels over
> IPTV (over inter-provider multicast, to any UK ISP that wants it).
>
> Simon
>   

-- 
Thomas Leavitt - thomas at thomasleavitt.org - 831-295-3917 (cell)

*** Independent Systems and Network Consultant, Santa Cruz, CA ***

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