Multicast Networking and Applications - Hardcover

Miller, C. Kenneth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0201309793 ISBN 13: 9780201309799

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 1998

Synopsis

A tutorial and complete description of the core concepts and real-world applications of IP multicast, one of the most effective solutions alleviating network congestion. The author, one of the key technologists in multicasting, describes a series of multicast applications and shows how they can be used to improve business processes and information dispersal without causing network infrastructure overload.

About this title

About the Author

C. Kenneth Miller is Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of StarBurst Communications Corporation, a company that produces reliable multicast software and applications. His primary focus is on new technologies that improve network and server utilization to streamline business practices. Mr. Miller is active in both the Reliable Multicast Research Group of the Internet Research Task Force and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

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From the Back Cover

Seen as the next great leap in Internet technology, multicast is a set of Internet protocols and related technologies that enable the distribution of data to multiple individual hosts--without causing network overload. Multicast is at the heart of many new networking applications being developed today, such as multimedia conferencing, software and critical data distribution through networks, and distance learning.

Geared for network managers, administrators, and developers, Multicast Networking and Applications provides a practical overview of multicast technology, its promises and pitfalls, and its implications for business. This book explores real-world applications that demonstrate key concepts and illustrate how multicast applications can be used to improve business processes and information distribution.

This book features a tutorial on multicast technologies that discusses:

• link layer versus network layer multicast
• multicast IP addressing, IGMP, and multicast routing protocols
• network infrastructures, including frame relay, virtual private networks, satellite networking, high-speed permanent links, switched links, and how each can support multicast
• replication, mirroring, and caching of Web sites today and how multicast technology can make improvements

In addition, this book explains "push," or Webcasting applications, and the newly proposed push standards. It offers an in-depth look at multimedia streaming applications--focusing on real-time protocols and format--and provides a fascinating look at reliable multicast applications and technology, the creation of multicast groups, and the critical topic of security.

Multicast Networking and Applications offers real-world case studies from companies that are now implementing and using multicast technology, including Microsoft, 3Com, Smith Barney, General Motors, and Toys "R" Us.

You will also find a revealing look at the future of multicast and the business trends that are driving the development of this powerful technology.

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From the Inside Flap

When I was approached in the summer of 1997 by Addison-Wesley to write a book on multicast networking and applications, I thought long and hard about whether to accept the offer. Although I had written a number of technical articles, I had never written a book before. Also, I was founder of a new company, StarBurst Communications, and had a high commitment to making it a success. This would mean I would need to write the book on personal time--nights, early mornings, and weekends.

As is obvious, I decided to take the plunge and make the commitment. The whole area of multicast networking and applications is an emerging market, and no books have been written on the subject by a non-academic or corporate researcher. I have been told that I am a clear writer on technology subjects, having spent some time as a columnist for Data Communications magazine in the early 1990s. I have targeted this book to IS staff members in commercial organizations who need to get a total view of this new technology, its pitfalls and promises, and its potential for helping the reader's specific company.

The process of writing this book has been a gratifying learning experience. Although I had knowledge of all of the topics in the book, I needed to gain more detailed information on some of them. I cannot explain a subject clearly to a reader if I do not understand it thoroughly myself. This process has thus helped me have a complete understanding of all of the issues in this emerging area in much greater detail. Acknowledgments

Many people have given me help and encouragement in the writing of this book. My colleagues at StarBurst have been unstinting in their support. The reviewers have been helpful in giving critiques that prompted the addition of new subjects and changes in the organization of the book, which I think has greatly strengthened the final result. I wish to single out for thanks Ted Hanss from Internet2, who encouraged me to add case studies, and Don Brutzman of the Naval Postgraduate School and Matt Naugle of ZIPCOM, Inc., who provided useful suggestions for organization. Ray Patch from Microsoft and Bob Quinn, a consultant to the IP Multicast Initiative, provided suggestions on Chapters 7-9. Markus Hofmann from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, gave me much encouragement and made many helpful suggestions relating to Chapter 8. Special thanks go to my brother, Don Miller, who was a former English teacher, English Department Chairman, and finally Headmaster at a number of private high schools. He reviewed the book for grammar and content and proved to be a good test to see if the material was easily understood, given that he is not a "techie."

I also wish to acknowledge my editors at Addison-Wesley, Karen Gettman and Mary Hart, who provided me encouragement and guidance in the writing of this, my first book.

Finally, a special thanks to my wife Dorcas, who provided support and encouragement as I used our personal time to complete this project.

--KEN MILLER

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PREFACE
When I was approached in the summer of 1997 by Addison-Wesley to write a book on multicast networking and applications, I thought long and hard about whether to accept the offer. Although I had written a number of technical articles, I had never written a book before. Also, I was founder of a new company, StarBurst Communications, and had a high commitment to making it a success. This would mean I would need to write the book on personal time--nights, early mornings, and weekends.

As is obvious, I decided to take the plunge and make the commitment. The whole area of multicast networking and applications is an emerging market, and no books have been written on the subject by a non-academic or corporate researcher. I have been told that I am a clear writer on technology subjects, having spent some time as a columnist for Data Communications magazine in the early 1990s. I have targeted this book to IS staff members in commercial organizations who need to get a total view of this new technology, its pitfalls and promises, and its potential for helping the reader's specific company.

The process of writing this book has been a gratifying learning experience. Although I had knowledge of all of the topics in the book, I needed to gain more detailed information on some of them. I cannot explain a subject clearly to a reader if I do not understand it thoroughly myself. This process has thus helped me have a complete understanding of all of the issues in this emerging area in much greater detail.

Acknowledgments
Many people have given me help and encouragement in the writing of this book. My colleagues at StarBurst have been unstinting in their support. The reviewers have been helpful in giving critiques that prompted the addition of new subjects and changes in the organization of the book, which I think has greatly strengthened the final result. I wish to single out for thanks Ted Hanss from Internet 2, who encouraged me to add case studies, and Don Brutzman of the Naval Postgraduate School and Matt Naugle of ZIPCOM, Inc., who provided useful suggestions for organization. Ray Patch from Microsoft and Bob Quinn, a consultant to the IP Multicast Initiative, provided suggestions on Chapters 7-9. Markus Hofmann from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, gave me much encouragement and made many helpful suggestions relating to Chapter 8. Special thanks go to my brother, Don Miller, who was a former English teacher, English Department Chairman, and finally Headmaster at a number of private high schools. He reviewed the book for grammar and content and proved to be a good test to see if the material was easily understood, given that he is not a "techie."

I also wish to acknowledge my editors at Addison-Wesley, Karen Gettman and Mary Hart, who provided me encouragement and guidance in the writing of this, my first book.
Finally, a special thanks to my wife Dorcas, who provided support and encouragement as I used our personal time to complete this project.
--KEN MILLER

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201309793
• ISBN 13: 9780201309799
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 282