Verizon Says They're Embracing P2P > Multicast

reply to patcat88

Re: Multicast

Yes, but only the "partner" IPTV provider of the telco would get the QOS guarentee/tagging. Net Neutrality here we come.

How the heck is this a Net Neutrality issue?!

It's not like there's an exceedingly vast array of companies producing content that garners mass viewership. You'll have companies like NBC/Universal, Viacom, Time Warner, etc all partnering with information services companies to distribute their crap down to end users.

Anything that doesn't reach critical mass for viewership likely won't benefit much from multicast distribution anyway.

How about a torrent with 300 peers?

What about it? Torrents are a non-starter for IPTV because the bandwidth grows linearly with the number of viewers.

Multicast = each packet delivered to many recipients; bandwidth usage remains flat as subscribers are added.

Torrent = each recipient needs their own unique packet; number of packets on the network increases linearly as viewers are added.

Torrents can be streamed, with traditional swarming to make up for lost blocks. Its not rocket science. Only question is, will the power ever allow their holy multicast IPs to land in the hands of consumers?