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The BBC has been streaming since 94/95 and has coped with growing volumes of unicast traffic that are now limiting our use of content.
So far we've catered for narrowband users with peaks of ~45K streams generating 2.2Gbit/s of traffic.
We've avoided content that would greatly exceed that to avoid user disappointment though it's not been entirely problem free below there.
With the roll out of broadband there is an audience for higher streaming rates. The BBC have announced as part of the Charter Review process that we'll be supporting UK broadband take up.
For this summer we've been able to acquire rights to content for use at broadband rates though we have to limit ourselves to UK only distribution of most of it.
The Olympic audience is expected to be around 50K streams, delivering 10Gbit+ is on the limit of sensible unicast delivery.
Multicast is a potential solution but previous trials in 1999 through 2001 showed there was technical interest but no business need, today's broadband audiences will change that.
BBC broadband content will be increasingly multicast only and include higher rate versions of existing content (e.g. our radio station streams).
We're starting with a public trial to establish the technology base, there are some technical obstacles to resolve over the course of the trial before we can launch a full service.
Initially we'll be working with a number of pioneer ISPs, all are welcome to join in. The trial network is separate from our production unicast network, it has it's own IX ports, PIs in Telehouse North are available.
As well as trialing multicast delivery we'll also test standards based streaming - AAC and H264/AVC as our aim is platform neutral open access to our content.
Other content and technology projects, IMP & PVR/PC crossover, will include multicast delivery so there's a lot to do.
Please join us,
Brandon, BBC R&D