NETWORKS
Internet2 and Members Provide Advanced Networking Resources for Online Viewing of Obama Inauguration
Northwestern University To Provide Live Multicast For C-SPAN Full Inauguration Coverage – The inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama on January 20, 2009 is expected to be one of the most widely viewed events in history both on televised networks and on the Internet. The Internet2 community is working to provide special services and support to enable institutions connected to the Internet2 Network the ability to view the inauguration festivities in the highest quality possible.
Since 2000 Northwestern University, in partnership with Video Furnace, has been providing live multicast streams of C-SPAN content to the Internet2 community. The Metropolitan Research and Education Network (MREN) provides Northwestern with multicast connectivity to the Internet2 backbone, where any multicast-enabled institution should be able to receive the streams via its regional network connector. C-SPAN will provide live coverage of the inauguration beginning at 6 am Eastern Time on Tuesday, January 20.
The Northwestern C-SPAN streams are available for Mac OS X, Linux, Windows,and Intel Solaris clients at <http://www.i2-multicast.northwestern.edu/>.Technical information and answers to frequently asked questions are available at that site.
A large majority of advanced regional and campus networks connected to the Internet2 Network are today multicast-enabled. IP multicasting allows content providers like C-SPAN to simultaneously broadcast a single stream of data to any number of end users. Under the traditional unicast model, each end user host would need to create individual connections to a content server to receive the data. For a highly publicized broadcast event like the inauguration, this could mean the generation of hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections, which would cause much higher latency, greatly degrade the viewer experience and significantly impact performance of the Internet. Because live video content requires high quality of service and consumes a significant amount of bandwidth, multicasting is a far more efficient means of delivering this content.
To determine if your institution is connected to the Internet2 Network and able to receive multicast streams – please visit the Internet2 Detective: http://detective.internet2.edu/.
In addition, through its Commercial Peering Service, the Internet2 Network peers with a number of commercial service and content providers. In doing so, the Internet2 Network will be able to provide high capacity transport for various other unicast and multicast streams of the inauguration originating from these sources. Internet2 is encouraging members who have questions about their multicast streams to contact their regional connector - http://www.internet2.edu/pubs/networkmap-connectors-participants.pdf
The Internet2 Network Operations Center (NOC) will make any questions or issues related to the inauguration coverage a priority and will work with regional connectors as necessary to ensure streams are operational.
Since 2000 Northwestern University, in partnership with Video Furnace, has been providing live multicast streams of C-SPAN content to the Internet2 community. The Metropolitan Research and Education Network (MREN) provides Northwestern with multicast connectivity to the Internet2 backbone, where any multicast-enabled institution should be able to receive the streams via its regional network connector. C-SPAN will provide live coverage of the inauguration beginning at 6 am Eastern Time on Tuesday, January 20.
The Northwestern C-SPAN streams are available for Mac OS X, Linux, Windows,and Intel Solaris clients at <http://www.i2-multicast.northwestern.edu/>.Technical information and answers to frequently asked questions are available at that site.
A large majority of advanced regional and campus networks connected to the Internet2 Network are today multicast-enabled. IP multicasting allows content providers like C-SPAN to simultaneously broadcast a single stream of data to any number of end users. Under the traditional unicast model, each end user host would need to create individual connections to a content server to receive the data. For a highly publicized broadcast event like the inauguration, this could mean the generation of hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections, which would cause much higher latency, greatly degrade the viewer experience and significantly impact performance of the Internet. Because live video content requires high quality of service and consumes a significant amount of bandwidth, multicasting is a far more efficient means of delivering this content.
To determine if your institution is connected to the Internet2 Network and able to receive multicast streams – please visit the Internet2 Detective: http://detective.internet2.edu/.
In addition, through its Commercial Peering Service, the Internet2 Network peers with a number of commercial service and content providers. In doing so, the Internet2 Network will be able to provide high capacity transport for various other unicast and multicast streams of the inauguration originating from these sources. Internet2 is encouraging members who have questions about their multicast streams to contact their regional connector - http://www.internet2.edu/pubs/networkmap-connectors-participants.pdf
The Internet2 Network Operations Center (NOC) will make any questions or issues related to the inauguration coverage a priority and will work with regional connectors as necessary to ensure streams are operational.