Using Satellite Links in the Delivery of Terrestrial Multicast Traffic

Multicast has been deployed and operating in the Internet since 1992. Through the provisioning of a multicast delivery service, researchers have been learning how to deliver scalable, one-to-many content. While much of the focus on multicast research continues to be on addressing the deployment challenges for the traditional Internet, other “non-traditional” infrastructures, like satellite, cable, and wireless networks are beginning to be recognized as important environments in which to provide and use multicast communication. The inherent broadcast nature of these networks suggests that multicast might be easier to provide as compared to the traditional Internet. In this chapter, we first examine how to configure a satellite network to support IP multicast. Next, we examine how to bridge Internet-based multicast sessions to a satellite network. Then, we report on our efforts to demonstrate the basic feasibility of delivering multicast sessions over a satellite network. Further, we focus on a quantitative analysis of the impact of satellite links on three network performance metrics: loss, jitter, and delay. In the final analysis, we answer the question on how and when to use satellite links in combination with terrestrial multicast-based sessions.