Confirming source-routed multicast is dead on the public Internet

Wed Aug 1 16:31:20 UTC 2018

On Wed, Aug 1, 2018 at 11:27 Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 1 Aug 2018, Aaron Gould wrote:
> > As you all have said, to confirm, I use ssm Mcast to distribute TV from
> > satellite down links in the headend, out to a few different remote head
> > ends.  From there it's converted back to RF video and sent to
> > subscribers via cable or hfc plant
>
> I'm aware that multicast is used extensively for "closed enterprise"
> networks in the financial and media industries.  It seems to work well
> when a single organization is paying for the entire network.
>
> My executive official came from that background, so I get why someone
> from that world would think multicast is widely used. Asking enterprise
> network sales people, they keep saying Yes, of course we support
> multicast.
>
> That's why I wanted to hear from public Internet engineers if multicast
> was still viable on the *public Internet*.

I'd say no - even though we have done inter-AS multicast before, it's only
been with our direct peers.