[I made this same comment to the IETF plenary last night, but I waited
until the end of the program to get in line so that more significant
topics could go first. However, the result of that strategy was that
many people whom I think might have been interested to hear my comment
had already left the room. So, I will bother the whole list now and
apologize if you are not interested.]
There has been a somewhat contentious discussion on this list recently
regarding what has not been achieved in security during the last 10
years. This meeting of the IETF was also the 10th anniversary of the
first audio multicast from the San Diego IETF meeting. Steve Deering
and I were the primary organizers of that "audiocast", with plenty of
help from many others to set up DVMRP tunnels ranging from Australia
to Sweden. There has been an audio + video multicast from every IETF
meeting since then. For one of those meetings (I don't recall which),
the cumulative number of distinct hosts tuning in to the multicast
during the week was just slightly higher than the number of physical
attendees. I thank those who have taken responsibility for the
multicasts subseqent to the first several that I worked on, including
the U of Oregon crew who have handled recent meetings.
I am disappointed that, like security, IP multicast has not become
universally deployed in those 10 years. Perhaps both problems are
just hard. I think we are making headway now on security; I hope
people have not given up on multicast.
Not coincidentally, this meeting was the 10th anniversary of the
Audio/Video Transport working group that I co-chair with Colin
Perkins. I suppose there may be some others that have lasted longer,
but it still seems like a long time.
-- Steve