[opendtv] Re: News: TV Braces for the Apple Tablet

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 18:01:37 -0600

Kon Wilms wrote:

> On a somewhat connected note I ran into some Mobitv guys
> the other week and they indicated that all the last mile
> for them was best served on current tech using unicasting.
> Multicasting is used for delivery to the last edge server
> in some/very few cases.
>
> It seemed to me that unicasting is also the preferred
> model since providers can bill viewers quite easily for
> bandwidth consumption, and can easily nail 'abusers'
> (>5Gb/mo data usage) with a per Kb charge for overages.
> In essence unicasting although less optimized from a
> bandwidth point of view, is better from a profit point of
> view.

Heh heh. That's exactly the same problem with regular wired ISPs' acceptance of 
multicast, turns out. I think IP multicast gets used mainly by the providers 
THEMSELVES, e.g. if they want to use IP to emulate a cable TV service, but it 
requires many additional bells and whistles. There is an I-D floating around 
about all this. They don't give the answer in this I-D, just state the problem.

http://www.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-mboned-multiaaa-framework-10.txt

IP multicast for the unwashed masses? Not a chance.

> I should also note that (putting on my CDN hat) unicasting
> is more profitable for us as well. We really don't care
> very much about the bandwidth (when you have a dozen+ OC192s
> it becomes irrelevant), and large scale broadcasts can be
> distributed via HTTP caching to edge/pop server clusters to
> scale the load.

That's true, with faster and faster wired (fibered) backbone nets becoming 
available. And then you can make every session VOD.

Bert
 
 
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