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multicast backbone

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multicast backbone

(MBONE) A virtual network on top of the Internet which supports routing of IP multicast packets, intended for multimedia transmission. MBONE gives public access desktop video communications. The quality is poor with only 3-5 frames per second instead of the 30 frames per second of commercial television. Its advantage is that it avoids all telecommunications costs normally associated with teleconferencing. An interesting innovation is the use of MBONE for audio communications and an electronic "whiteboard" where the computer screen becomes a shared workspace where two physically remote parties can draw on and edit shared documents in real-time.
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Mbone

(Multicast backBONE) A group of servers throughout the Internet that support the IP multicast protocol (one-to-many) and allow for live audio and video transmission. When it is necessary to leave the Mbone and traverse a part of the Internet that does not support multicast packets, the packets are tunneled into normal packets. Mbone routers (mrouters) encapsulate the multicast packets into unicast packets and unencapsulate them on the receiving side.
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References in periodicals archive
MBONE: The multicast backbone. Communications of the ACM, 37(8), 54-60.
The second thing on my list is to check what is on the MBone--the Multicast Backbone, which is a virtual network on "top" of the Internet providing a multicasting facility to the Internet.
The worldwide Internet has been providing an IP multicast routing service for some time now, through a structure called the MBone (for Multicast Backbone;).
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