Internet backbone provider Teleglobe is working with satellite company INTELSAT to test multicasting services via the Internet Distribution System (IDS), an Internet satellite system.
The IDS system is designed to cache the most frequently accessed Internet content in a data”warehouse” and multicast the data via satellite to correspondent “kiosk” sites around the world.
In this beta test, Teleglobe will operate a warehouse, which will multicast Internet content to kiosk sites in the UK, the U.S., Brazil, France, Cyprus, Egypt, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden. These sites will then receive content to be stored in a local cache on a “push” or “pull” request basis.
Trial participants include BT, COMSAT, EMBRATEL, France Telecom,KPN International, Telecom Authority of Cyprus/CYTANET, Telecom Egypt/IDSC and Telia.
According to the firms, commercial services will be offered initially on an expanded platform, which will accommodate non-real time content distribution from the Web and subsequently be able to handle true push applications involving content publishers and providers on a subscription basis.
“We believe satellite is an ideal solution for the near real-time delivery of content such as cache updates and news simultaneously to large numbers of customers over a wide geographic area,” said Bob Collet, Teleglobe’s vice president and general manager, Internet and data services.
“Our global reach and vertical integration of terrestrial and satellite transmission, tier one U.S., Canadian and European backbone routing, and cache and streaming media management capabilities enables us to provide customers optimized Internet access solutions.”