Multicast Internet Based MCS

A recent workitem in the ITU group defining these protocols has started to look at how the MCS might be implemented on top of a reliable multicast transport protocol with the Internet, instead of on top of ISDN. This is a very promising direction for scaling to larger H.320 style conferences.

At the same time, there is a definition for the use of RTP for dissemination of media from an MCU, onto a LAN. The combination of these two approaches brings much closer together the ITU approach to that of the Mbone. There are severla further stages before there is complete unification - largely in the area of supporting loosely coupled and anonymous sessions, and in supporting heterogeneity (varying receiver capabilities) in the ITU H.320 approach.