IP Multicast: Is It Ready For Prime Time?

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February 23, 1998

IP Multicast: Is It Ready For Prime Time?
An interview with Judy Estrin, CEO of Precept Software
By Jason Levitt
P multicast? It's a rather precise name that describes an infrastructure for broadcasting data over the Internet. Its uses range from software distribution to television and radio-style broadcasting to thousands of users simultaneously in near-real time. But though IP multicast is a powerful solution, it requires serious and costly network upgrades to deploy. The cost and complexity of upgrading networks combined with a lack of standards for reliably transmitting data over the IP multicast infrastructure has slowed its acceptance in the business world. All that is changing, though -- quickly, if the recent IP multicast Summit conference is any indication. Large companies are starting to deploy IP multicast in their intranets and they're saving some major network bandwidth in the process. At the IP multicast Summit, I had a chance to talk with Judy Estrin, president and CEO of Precept Software Inc., a developer of IP multicast solutions. Precept develops and markets IPTV, a client-server application that lets enterprises transmit real-time audio and video across standard IP networks, including the Internet. Estrin is one of IP multicast's biggest proponents. I asked her some questions about IP multicast in the enterprise and this is what she said:
InformationWeek: The 1998 IP multicast Summit showcased some interesting case studies of IP multicast deployment from organizations such as Federal Express, NASA, and UUNet. Despite their success with this relatively new technology, it seems most companies are still testing the waters. What has been the major factor(s) that has kept companies from going for it? What technologies or issues are changing the climate for IP multicast?
Estrin: What initially slowed widespread acceptance was a lack of understanding of just what IP multicast could do, a lack of motivation because applications didn't exist, and a lack of stable implementations by infrastructure vendors. Over the last year the landscape has changed dramatically. In the application area, we now have streaming video and multicast file-transfer products (such as those from Precept and Starburst). In the infrastructure arena we have Microsoft's TCP protocol stack and Cisco's routers with ma ture implementations of IP multicast. But, over the same period, the Internet and corporate intranets have emerged as mission-critical tools -- and, with good reason, corporations are cautious about introducing any new technology into their mission-critical environments. So IP multicast is being phased in rather than implemented all at once. The IP Multicast Initiative, with nearly 100 member organizations, is helping to drive this process. And only recently have we seen a spate of both users (NIH, Federal Express, the University of Oregon) and content providers (Disney) publicly demonstrating the viability of multicasting technology.
InformationWeek: IP multicast has practical applications for corporate sites with large numbers of users, but is it practical, from an ROI perspective, for smaller companies to deploy? I'm afraid your answer might be, it depends on the application. If that's true, can you give an example where you think a smaller company would reap significant ROI from IP multicast?
Estrin: Multicast is applicable in any organization with a need to communicate information from one to many (where many can be 10, 100 or 10,000). Though in larger organizations the investment is higher, greater bandwidth savings per user will be realized. In smaller environments, on the other hand, multicast can be easier and less costly to deploy because there is likely less equipment to upgrade. In a fully switched network, for example, there are no routers to be upgraded; in a flat LAN with no switches OR routers, the issue is even simpler.
The applications for IP multicast will vary based on the size of the organization. Whereas a 50-person firm can conduct leader-led training in a room on site, a company with thousands of employees spread out across the globe would find IP multicast an ideal vehicle for delivering "distance learning." On the other hand, using IP multicast to bring television (e.g., CNN and other news programming) to employee desktops would be just as effective for the small company as for the large one.
InformationWeek: Despite the bandwidth-saving attributes of IP multicast, widespread deployment over the Internet seems like it could cause major congestion, especially if broadcasting of audio and video becomes easier because Internet service providers have enabled IP multicast. Do you agree? What form do you see IP multicast taking over the Internet?
Estrin: There's no question that transmitting video and audio over the Internet does create a bandwidth demand that wouldn't otherwise be there. But now that users have seen how effective such transmissions can be, the demand for them will only increase, whether or not IP multicast is deployed. IP multicast is the only technology that can address this situation effectively by reducing the number of video/audio streams actually being sent. By the year 2001, IP multicast will be commonplace on the Internet. In the meantime, it will be phased in gradually, first with tunneling, satellite, and other interim technologies, and ultimately on its own.
InformationWeek: IP multicast deployment brings up a lot of security issues for the enterprise. Routers have to be a lot smarter to handle IP multicasts, new software may have to be deployed on desktops, and access to IP multicast sites outside the firewall are a possibility, as well. What do you feel are the primary security risks for corporate sites deploying IP multicast? Are any standards being developed to handle them?
Estrin: Any new technology brings with it new concerns of security and management. IP multicast per se has no unique security issues. However, the applications that use IP multicast (e.g., streaming video) typically generate UDP (Universal Datagram Protocol) rather than TCP traffic. Historically, most firewall products have not had mechanisms for selectively dealing with UDP traffic. While no standard ways to do this have emerged, firewall vendors, because of the sharp increase in UDP applications, have recently begun to develop products that can cope with various multicast applications. Corporations will have to be alert to make sure that the firewalls they purchase are capable of protecting all the mission-critical applications they have deployed.
InformationWeek: IP multicast is widely touted as the solution for broadcasting bandwidth-intensive data such as video, audio, and large files, even though it is not yet widely deployed. Do you see any new classes of applications appearing once IP multicast is widely deployed? What major consumer applications do you envision?
Estrin: It is as yet unclear whether any wholly new classes of application will emerge to take advantage of IP multicast once it becomes ubiquitous. However, three application categories will become much easier and more efficient to deploy (and therefore far more widespread) once they can escape the heavy bandwidth burden of unicast. One is audio/video, includin g streaming programs, video-on-demand, and multipoint conferencing. A second is information dispersal, including multipoint file transfer and information updating (e.g., stock updates and other "push" applications). And the third -- the one we've heard least about because it's the least sexy -- is a set of system- level functions such as simultaneous updating of Web caches and replication of databases for redundancy. Obviously a major consumer application for IP multicast will be entertainment, as content providers send everything from feature films to multiplayer interactive games over the Net; Disney recently became the first major player to announce development of a multicast channel. But electronic commerce will likely play just as large a role in multicast, with videos that let a prospective home buyer watch a video of new houses on the market, or a prospective car buyer see a demonstration of a new model's road performance.
For more information about IP multicast, visit the IP multi cast Initiative Web site at www.ipmulticast.com .
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