Multicast Backbone
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Mbone (short for "
multicast In computer networking, multicast is a type of group communication where data transmission is addressed to a group of destination computers simultaneously. Multicast can be one-to-many or many-to-many distribution. Multicast differs from ph ...
backbone") was an experimental
backbone The spinal column, also known as the vertebral column, spine or backbone, is the core part of the axial skeleton in vertebrates. The vertebral column is the defining and eponymous characteristic of the vertebrate. The spinal column is a segmente ...
and
virtual network In computing, network virtualization is the process of combining hardware and software network resources and network functionality into a single, software-based administrative entity, a virtual network. Network virtualization involves platform v ...
built on top of the Internet for carrying
IP multicast IP multicast is a method of sending Internet Protocol (IP) datagrams to a group of interested receivers in a single transmission. It is the IP-specific form of multicast and is used for streaming media and other network applications. It uses speci ...
traffic on the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
. It was developed in the early 1990s and required specialized hardware and software.Lewis, Peter H
"Peering Out a 'Real Time' Window"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', 8 February 1995. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
Since the operators of most Internet routers have disabled IP multicast due to concerns regarding bandwidth tracking and billing, the Mbone was created to connect multicast-capable networks over the existing Internet infrastructure.


History

Mbone was created by
Van Jacobson Van Jacobson is an American computer scientist, renowned for his work on TCP/IP network performance and scaling.Steve Deering Stephen Deering is a former Fellow at Cisco Systems, where he worked on the development and standardization of architectural enhancements to the Internet Protocol. Prior to joining Cisco in 1996, he spent six years at Xerox's Palo Alto Research C ...
and Stephen Casner in 1992 based on a suggestion by
Allison Mankin Allison Mankin is an American computer scientist and prominent figure in the area of Internet governance. She previously served as the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) Chair and holds numerous leadership positions within the Internet Engineering ...
. During March 16–20, 1992 the first significant use of the MBONE took place from th
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting in San Diego
wit

On May 23, 1993, ''
Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees ''Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees'' is the first independent feature film by American filmmaker and artist David Blair. It was also the first film to be livestreamed on the Internet. Synopsis Blair performs in the film, which ...
'' was streamed over the Mbone, becoming "the first movie to be transmitted on the Internet." On June 24, 1993, the band Severe Tire Damage was the first to perform live on the Mbone. On November 11, 1993
Sky Cries Mary Sky Cries Mary is an American psychedelic rock/trance musical group from Seattle, Washington, formed in the late 1980s by Roderick Wolgamott. Early band influences included European industrial music bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten, Coil ...
performed on the Mbone from Bellevue, WA sponsored by Starwave. On August 23, 1994, the band
Deth Specula Deth Specula is a Santa Cruz "neo-bronto" five-piece rock band. Deth Specula was one of the first ten bands on The Internet Underground Music Archive and used the Internet to broadcast a live music concert from the Cowell Courtyard at the SCO Fo ...
broadcast the first live concert over the Mbone. A November 1994
Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
concert at the Cotton Bowl in
Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
with 50,000 fans was the "first major cyberspace multicast concert."
Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...
opened the concert by saying, "I wanna say a special welcome to everyone that's, uh, climbed into the Internet tonight and, uh, has got into the M-bone. And I hope it doesn't all collapse." A year later the Mbone was used, this time symmetrically (simultaneous transmission and reception without hierarchy among participants), for a first experience of real-time graphical interaction without the intermediary of any Center (
Poietic Generator The Poietic Generator is a social-network game designed by Olivier Auber in 1986; it was developed from 1987 under the label free art thanks to many contributors. The game takes place within a two-dimensional matrix in the tradition of board game ...
). By 1995, there were M-bone links in
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, as well as at the
McMurdo Sound The McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica, known as the southernmost passable body of water in the world, located approximately from the South Pole. Captain James Clark Ross discovered the sound in February 1841 and named it after Lieutenant ...
research station in
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
. Mbone was predominantly used by research and scientific entities, including NASA. Mbone was used for shared communication such as
video teleconference Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Videophones'' are ...
s or shared collaborative workspaces. It was not generally connected to commercial
Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...
s, but often to universities and research institutions. Some other projects and network testbeds, such as
Internet2 Internet2 is a not-for-profit United States computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must ...
's
Abilene Network Abilene Network was a high-performance backbone network created by the Internet2 community in the late 1990s. In 2007 the Abilene Network was retired and the upgraded network became known as the "Internet2 Network". History One of the aims of th ...
, made Mbone obsolete. A "virtual room video conferencing system" (VRVS) started operation in 1997 using the Mbone, and was in operation through 2008. A revived ''mboned'' (mbone deployment) working group was chartered by the
Internet Engineering Task Force The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet standard, Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster ...
in 2014, as a forum to coordinate and document multicast deployment challenges and best practices.


Details

The purpose of Mbone was to minimize the amount of data required for multipoint audio/video-conferencing. Mbone was free and it used a network of routers that support IP multicast, and it enables access to real-time interactive multimedia on the Internet. Many older routers do not support
IP multicast IP multicast is a method of sending Internet Protocol (IP) datagrams to a group of interested receivers in a single transmission. It is the IP-specific form of multicast and is used for streaming media and other network applications. It uses speci ...
. To cope with this,
tunnels A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...
must be set up on both ends: multicast packets are encapsulated in unicast packets and sent through a tunnel. Mbone uses a small subset of the class D IP address space (224.0.0.0–239.255.255.255) assigned for multicast traffic. Mbone uses 224.2.0.0 for multimedia conferencing.


Characteristics

*
topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...
: a combination of
mesh Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a comprehensive controlled vocabulary for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. It serves as a thesaurus of index terms that facilitates searching. Created and updated by th ...
and
star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
networks *
IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...
es: 224.2.0.0 * routing schemes: DVMRP,
MOSPF Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a routing protocol for Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It uses a link state routing (LSR) algorithm and falls into the group of interior gateway protocols (IGPs), operating within a single Autonomous syste ...
* session registration:
IGMP The Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is a communications protocol used by hosts and adjacent routers on IPv4 networks to establish multicast group memberships. IGMP is an integral part of IP multicast and allows the network to direct m ...
* traffic requirement: audio 32-64 kbit/s, video 120 kbit/s


Mbone tools

*
Videoconferencing Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...
: vic -t ttl destination-host/port (supports: NV,
H.261 H.261 is an ITU-T video compression standard, first ratified in November 1988. It is the first member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T Study Group 16 Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG, then Specialists Gr ...
, CellB,
MPEG The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by International Organization for Standardization, ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC that sets standards for media coding, includ ...
,
mJPEG Motion JPEG (M-JPEG or MJPEG) is a video compression format in which each video frame or interlaced field of a digital video sequence is compressed separately as a JPEG image. Originally developed for multimedia PC applications, Motion JPE ...
) * Audioconferencing: vat -t ttl destination-host/port (supports: LPC, PCMU, DVI4,
GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...
) *
Whiteboard A whiteboard (also known as marker board, dry-erase board, dry-wipe board, and pen-board) is a glossy, usually white surface for making non-permanent markings. Whiteboards are analogous to blackboards, but with a smoother surface allowing for ...
: wb destination-host/port/ttl * Session Directory: sdr * Collective art : gp (
Poietic Generator The Poietic Generator is a social-network game designed by Olivier Auber in 1986; it was developed from 1987 under the label free art thanks to many contributors. The game takes place within a two-dimensional matrix in the tradition of board game ...
)


See also

* CastGate—an attempt at providing connectivity to the multicast network for hosts which have none


References


External links

*
MBONE: Multicasting Tomorrow's Internet
': Classic book about MBONE, by Kevin Savetz, Neil Randall, and Yves Lepage, complete on-line
IETF MBONE Deployment working groupHow to connect to the MBoneAccessGrid.org
€”Ajit S. Thyagarajan, Stephen L. Casner, and Stephen E. Deering, Proc. INET '95. Internet Society. May 10, 1995


Historical clients


LBNL's toolsMICE's tools
{{Authority control Internet architecture