I found the multicast registery here.

https://www.iana.org/assignments/multicast-addresses/multicast-addresses.xhtml

I already knew that addresses between 224.0.0.1 and 239.255.255.255 are reserved by multicast.

Obviously multicast could be immensely useful if used by the general public, it would obsolete much of facebook, youtube, nearly all CDNs (content delivery networks), would kill cloudflare and company’s business model and just re-arrange the internet with far reaching social implication.

So, why hasn’t all these multicast addresses been converted in usable private IPv4 unicast address space ?

  • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.mlOP
    1·
    4 months ago

    The information could be live streamed from the camera or from a recording, that doesn’t make a difference. It could also be ANY data, not just video.

    Also, yes, if you are not listening for the packets, then you will not receive them later. There is no servers between the sender and receiver, this means no gatekeeper, no middleman, it’s a democratization of broadcast without intermediaries.

    The only reason it is more efficient is because of how direct it is.

    Before the internet we had TVs which, if they were not turned on, could not store and receive any of the video stream being broadcast, it’s a lot like that. You didn’t ask the TV station to send you a video file, they sent it out regardless and you listened to it or you didn’t.

    The problem with caching or storing anything, is now you’re back to need one connection per receiver, you’re no longer sending out a single copy, you have to send 500 hundred copies if 500 people want it, that takes far too much resources.