Mbone (short for "multicast backbone") is an experimental backbone for IP Multicast traffic across the Internet. Since most Internet routers do not yet support IP Multicast, the Mbone has evolved to connect multicast-capable networks over the existing Internet infrastructure. It is anticipated that the Mbone will eventually become obsolete as more routers understand and forward IP Multicast traffic, which is a standard feature in IPv6. Some major difficulties with the commercialization of multicast routers are the lack of efficient access control capabilities to the multicast trees (multicast routers and their protocols) as well as the difficulty for an ISP to compute charges for multicast traffic. IP Multicast is a method whereby a message can be sent simultaneously to several computers, instead of singly to one computer. ... This article is about a computer networking device. ... Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer protocol for packet-switched internetworks. ...

The Mbone is currently of practical use for shared communication such as videoconferences or shared collaborative workspaces. The Mbone is not generally connected to Internet Service Providers but is often connected to universities and research institutions. Some other projects and network testbeds, such as Internet2's Abilene Network, have made Mbone obsolete. Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Groupware | Telecommunications stubs ... An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a business or organization that offers users access to the Internet and related services. ... Abilene Network is the U.S. high-performance backbone network created by the Internet2 community. ...

Details

• MBONE is a virtual network built on top of the Internet; Invented by Van Jacobson and Steve Casner in 1992. The purpose of MBONE is to minimize amount of data required for multipoint audio / video-conferencing

• MBONE is free; it uses network of mrouters that can support IP Multicast; enables access to real-time interactive multimedia on the Internet

• Many older routers do not support IP Multicast; to avoid this we must set up tunnels on both ends; multicast packets are encapsulated in unicast packets and sent through a tunnel;

• MBONE uses a small subset of 224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255 assigned for multicast traffic. MBONE uses 224.2.0.0 for multimedia conferencing

• Characteristics:
  • topology: combination of mesh and star
  • IP addresses: 224.2.0.0; routing schemes: DVMRP, MOSPF
  • session registration: IGMP protocol
  • traffic requirement: audio 32-64 Kbps, video 120 Kbps

• MBONE tools:
  • Video-conferencing: vic -t ttl destination-host/port (supports: NV, H.261, CellB, MPEG, mJPEG)
  • Audio-conferencing: vat -t ttl destination-host/port (supports: LPC, PCMU, DVI4, GSM)
  • whiteboard: wb destination-host/port/ttl
  • session directory: sdr

An overlay network is a computer network which is built on top of another network. ... IP Multicast is a method whereby a message can be sent simultaneously to several computers, instead of singly to one computer. ... In computer networking a multicast address is an identifier for a group of hosts that have joined a multicast group. ... A Möbius strip, a surface with only one side and one edge; such shapes are an object of study in topology. ... Mesh networking is a way to route data, voice and instructions between nodes. ... Star network layout Star networks are one of the most common computer network topologies. ... An IP address is a unique number, akin to a telephone number, used by machines (usually computers) to refer to each other when sending information through the Internet using the Internet Protocol. ... The Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP) is used to share information between routers and transport Multicast packets among networks. ... MOSPF stands for Multiport Open Shortest Path First. ... The Internet Group Management Protocol is a communications protocol used to manage the membership of Internet Protocol multicast groups. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... NV, Nv, nv, or nV may stand for: Naamloze Vennootschap (Dutch abbreviation for public limited liability company) Nevada, U.S. postal abbreviation Navajo language (ISO 639 alpha-2, nv) NV is the IATA code for Air Central airline Night vision nanovolt, see volt North Vietnam Nv [abbeviation for NvDm] Owner... H.261 is an 1990 ITU video coding standard originally designed for transmission over ISDN lines on which data rates are multiples of 64 kbit/s. ... The Moving Picture Experts Group or MPEG is a working group of ISO/IEC charged with the development of video and audio encoding standards. ... Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) is an informal name for multimedia formats where each video frame or interlaced field of a digital video sequence is separately compressed as a JPEG image. ... LPC can refer to: Legendary Property Company, A property company based in Manchester, UK The Legal Practice Course, A postgraduate, professional legal qualification degree required by all those wishing to eventually practice as solicitors in England and Wales. ... Not to be confused with Get Some Mates The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. ... ...

External links

• MBONE: Multicasting Tomorrow's Internet: Classic book about MBONE, by Kevin Savetz, Neil Randall, and Yves Lepage, complete on-line
• How to connect to the MBone
• Site with Multicast Tester to see if web client host has access to Mbone
• Multicast Beacon Project
• http://www.accessgrid.org/
• Videoconference support over Mbone. Note: end-client does not use Mbone, but VRVS infrastructure does.
• What is MBONE? From Webopedia

Historical clients

• LBNL's tools
• MICE's tools
• OpenMash

See also

• Multicast