Confirming source-routed multicast is dead on the public Internet

Tue Jul 31 21:46:12 UTC 2018

On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 5:28 PM, Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:
> Its tought to prove a negative. I'm extremely confident the answer is yes,
> public internet multicast is not viable. I did all the google searches,
> check all the usual CAIDA and ISP sites. IP Multicast is used on private
> enterprise networks, and some ISPs use it for some closed services.
>
> I got sent back with a random comment from a senior official saying "but I
> heard different." I bit my tongue, and said I would double (now quadruple)
> check.
>
> If any ISPs have working IP source-routed multicast on the public Internet
> that I missed, or what I got wrong.  That's what content distribution
> networks (cdn's) are for instead.

Hi Sean,

I'm sure that transit providers with whom you have no commercial
relationship are happy to let you program their routers to forward
your multicast packets. Not just happy, ecstatic I'd say.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>