Secure Reliable Multicast; Lab or Wright Brothers?

The most important protocol invented ever is about to find it’s way upon us. It will be that protocol that adds security, reliability, quality of service, multicast signal tracing, usage accounting and dynamic tunneling to overcome lack of support. This protocol will act like a Swiss army knife for inter-domain IP Multicast, providing all of the missing elements from the current Multicast model.

The Internet has been built on a building blocks approach, and this is where we should stay! The people who work in the field should control the domain of development of secure reliable IP Multicast.

Let’s have installed base determine what is the best way to add reliability, security and feedback to the “fire and forget it” IP Multicast model.
Let’s accept a ‘standard’ that has stood the test of continued field operation under heavy load. Let’s create the same kind of environment for IP Multicast that created things like jet engines, telephones and radios.

The creators of important Internet protocols would do well to emulate the Wright Brothers, because secure reliable IP Multicast is too complex to be solved without hands on involvement of IT staffing. Let’s keep the door open for people who implement these things. Maybe the best ideas will come from them. When security, reliability and feedback are added to the IP Multicast model we will begin the start of a new era. The public will finally own its own mass media. Everybody wins if we do this, especially the broadcasters. The Public Internet has been good for business; just ask the IT department folks, ka-ching! Let’s have secure, reliable, accountable IP Multicast begin to fly without strings. Then the seeds can take root and we can harvest the tree!