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IP level multicast routing turned out to be too difficult in large scale. There are a several somewhat subtle reasons and mis-incentives, perhaps the most press

IP level multicast routing turned out to be too difficult in large scale. There are a several somewhat subtle reasons and mis-incentives, perhaps the most pressing being scheduling and time and bandwith synchronization between receivers. TCP does not work there... The problem was solved by application level "multicast", or content delivery networks. You can keep your TCP and all your regular clients.

convolvatron 7y ago
TCP doesn't work, but the multicast version is a real classic of IETF engineering, and I am really just looking for an excuse to post it here http://ccr.sigcomm.org/archive/1995/conf/floyd.pdf http://ccr.sigcomm.org/archive/1995/conf/floyd.pdf
bewo001 6y ago
What's interesting that the IETF unconsciously tried to replicate classical TV with multicast. Apart from the complications of adding a lot of highly dynamic state to routers, it turns out that people actually prefer on-demand streaming. Live TV is a niche.