Re: Work Proposal

[Cheng-Yin Lee <leecy@nortelnetworks.com>]

Jon suggested  timescales as well, so here is a strawman proposal

The primary goal of the group is to develop specifications that will ease
the scaling (in the longer term) of current multicast routing protocols
targeted for these type of applications:
* Internet wide information distribution (eg 'webcast', content
subscription/distribution)
* Internet wide interactive information exchange (eg
conferencing/discussion, games).

The approach taken will allow the root (source or core) of the multicast
distribution tree to allocate logical  addresses that can be used to
address multicast groups. Since address management is local to the root, it
will not require Internet wide coordination and will also facilitate
applications to use the address space in a creative and application
specific manner (eg content filtering/naming, layered data) where
applicable.

The scope of work is as follows:

* extend the current multicast API to use this new addressing
- the group multicast address will consist of both the root (source or
core) of the multicast tree and a
multicast address.

* extend the current multicast data forwarding to forward based on
<root, multicast address>.
The address encoding should allow :
- routers which do not understand this new addressing to forward packets
non natively (unicast)
- current hardware to forward packet with this new addressing when the
root is the source of the multicast  group in the initial implementation
and deployment,
- for hardware to be upgraded to forward packet with the core as root.

* changes to control messages will be defined generically in TLV format.
The group will coordinate with the respective WGs for these to be
implemented in PIM/CBT/BGMP.

* migration/interoperability issues related to the above

  Goals and Milestones:

   Jul 99   Charter WG and specify goals and deliverables
   Oct 99  Issue first Internet-Draft on extensions to IP multicast
   Dec 99  Achieve concensus on the extensions
   Mar 00  Issue detailed specifications on host and router extensions
   Nov  00  Submit specifications to IESG as proposed standards

Reference:
* "Multicast Requirements for the Definition of New IP Multicast
Services"
  Christophe Diot, Bryan Lyles, Sprint ATL
  Brian Neil Levine, Consultant, Sprint ATL
  Ramanan Shanmugam, Amir Tabdili, Hassan Kassem, Sprintlink