The MBone Info

Source: modified from the MBone FAQ

The MBone stands for the Multicast Backbone on the Internet.
The name was inspired by the name of the European backbone network "EBone".
Using the MBone, it is possible to transmit audio, video and other data in real time to multiple destinations throughout the global Internet.

The MBone is a virtual network.
It is layered on top of portions of the physical Internet to support routing of IP multicast packets.
The network is composed of islands that can directly support IP multicast, such as multicast LANs like Ethernet, linked by virtual point-to-point links called "tunnels".
The tunnel endpoints are typically workstation-class machines having operating system support for IP multicast and running the "mrouted" multicast routing daemon.

How do I join the MBone?

1. If you are an end-user site, please contact your network provider.
If your network provider is not participating in the MBone, you can arrange to connect to some nearby point that is on the MBone, but it is far better to encourage your network provider to participate to avoid overloading links with duplicate tunnels to separate end nodes.

If you are a network povider, send a message to the -request address of the mailing list for your region to be added to that list for purposes of coordinating setup of tunnels, etc:

        Australia:	mbone-oz-request@internode.com.au
	Austria:	mbone-at-request@noc.aco.net
	Canada:	 	canet-mbone-request@canet.ca
	Denmark:	mbone-request@daimi.aau.dk
	France:		mbone-fr-request@inria.fr
	Germany:	mbone-de-request@informatik.uni-erlangen.de
	Italy:		mbone-it-request@nis.garr.it
	Japan:		mbone-jp-request@wide.ad.jp
	Korea:		mbone-request@knc.or.kr
	Netherlands:	mbone-nl-request@nic.surfnet.nl
	New Zealand:	mbone-nz-request@waikato.ac.nz
	Singapore:	mbone-sg-request@technet.sg
	UK:		mbone-uk-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk
        North America:  mbone-na-request@isi.edu 
        Europe:         mbone-eu: mbone-eu-request@sics.se
        Other:          mbone-request@isi.edu

2. Set up an mrouted machine, build a kernel with IP multicast extensions added, and install the kernel and mrouted; or, install MOSPF software in a Proteon router.

3. Send a message to the mbone list for your region asking to hook in, then coordinate with existing nodes to join the tunnel topology.

Multicast for Windows users:

Run some flavor of BSD on the PC, plus mrouted, and establish a DVMRP tunnel from the PC to an MBone router somewhere in the Internet.
Take a second PC and place it between the dialup line and the original PC, e.g., like this:
PC1 ---<ethernet>--- PC2 ---<dialup>--- AccessRouter
Then run Windows or NT on PC1 and run BSD and mrouted on PC2, with a DVMRP tunnel from PC2 to an MBone router somewhere in the Internet, and IGMP and native IP multicast being spoken between PC1 and PC2.
FVC.COM I-TV Viewer and Guide (screenshot)
Cisco IP/TV Viewer

History and events:

In March 1992, an audio feed from the IETF meeting was broadcast to 28 remote locations, including points as distant as Sweden and Australia. This was the world's first use of the MBone. The MBone was brought up again in July '92, this time with video, and it's been online continuously ever since.

Sampling of Broadcasts:

Mar 92 -- IETF meeting (first MBone broadcast, audio only)
6 Nov 92 -- NPR "Talk of the Nation" about Internet phone, patched to MBone
24 Jun 93 -- Concert by Severe Tire Damage from PARC before Jacobson Forum (first live concert on the MBone)
22-25 Aug 94 -- IEEE ITS'94 International Telecomm. Symposium, Rio de Janeiro
20 Oct 94 -- Announcement of White House WWW server, from the W.H. (failed)
11 Nov 94 -- Minimally Invasive Surgery from Middlesex Hospital, UK (restricted)
18 Nov 94 -- Rolling Stones Live from Dallas (ThinkPix and Sun)
19 Jan 95 -- Live from Antarctica, NASA Select via Ames
9 Mar 95 -- JASON Project (oceanographic visualization) Expedition VI, Island Earth, from Hawaii
24 May 95 -- The Lizards in concert, from DEC SRC
6 Aug 95 -- 50th Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, in 5 languages
7 Oct 95 -- Ham Radio class, from U Missouri
14 Nov 95 -- Asia Pacific Music Festival, from Osaka
13-14 Mar 96 -- Microsoft Internet developer's conference, from SF via UCB
14 Mar 96 -- Space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble space telescope
18 Apr 96 -- Robert Devaney, Fractal Geometry of the Mandelbrot Set, U of MO
5 Jun 96 -- Starchild: The Opera, from Georgia Tech
8 Jul 96 -- Pilot's eye view from the NASA Shuttle dashboard
9-12 Nov 96 -- Micro-Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament'96, from KAIST, Korea
25 Feb 97 -- Seminar on physics results from the LEP run at 172 GeV, from CERN
3-5 Mar 97 -- ACM '97 (Association of Computing Machinery)
7-11 Apr 97 -- WWW6, Sixth International World Wide Web Conference, Santa Clara
22 May 97 -- WGBH broadcast of David Breashears reaching summit of Mt. Everest
30 Jun 97 -- Hong Kong Handover ceremonies, starting 12:00 noon Hong Kong time
10 Jul 97 -- Large Hadron Collider Committee Session
8-12 Dec 97 -- 40th IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), Washington, DC
24-28 Aug 98 -- 42th IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), Chicago, IL
8-12 Mar 99 -- 44th IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), Minneapolis, MN
9-11 Jun 99 -- USENIX '99 technical conference, Monterey, CA

Related sites:

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