Global communications satellite operator IntelSat is
partnering with Teleglobe, Telecom Egypt, Telkom South Africa, Cyprus
Telecommunications Authority and Embratel of Brazil to test its Multicast
Internet Caching and Replication System.
Scheduled to start in November, the
partners will test the technical viability of multicasting the most popular
Internet content from an Internet “warehouse” to “kiosk” sites via satellite.
IntelSat said the first tests are pre-commercial, and are aimed at
exploring the technical aspects of the operation. In one of the first tests,
Teleglobe will operate an Internet warehouse at one of its network
service facilities in Canada. From there it will multicast through the
IntelSat earth stations to kiosk sites in Egypt, South Africa, Cyprus and
Brazil. At the receiving end, the content will flow into a local cache on a
“push” or “pull” basis.
“This system, which we are demonstrating with our signatory partners, exploits
the advantages that geostationary satellites have over other transmission
media for international Internet services,” said Conny Kullman, IntelSat’s vice president of operations & engineering.
“Point-to-multipoint capabilities and the ease of implementing asymmetrical links are combined in this
unique service platform. We expect this service to provide many
advantages including faster access time to Internet sites for end-users,
reduced international link costs for ISPs and reduced traffic load on
original Internet sites.”
A&T Systems, of Silver Spring, Maryland, is developing the
multicast-to-cache service platform for IntelSat. The prototype contains
and manages three types of Internet content: popular, pre-selected Web
sites; data that content providers wish to “push” to the cache; and content
requested (or “pulled”) by users or kiosk operators.
The full commercial version of the platform will have many additional
features, including the ability to deliver real-time-on-demand music, and
both real-time and “semi-real-time” content delivery of financial
information.
Preliminary results from the test will be available at the Internet Multicast
Summit, 10-11 December in Washington, D.C., hosted by IntelSat.
Visitors will also see a live demonstration of the multicast platform.
