Switch, Software Upgrades Take Aim at Enterprise Video

The push is on to make IP-based video more common place within the walls of the enterprise. In two separate announcements on Tuesday, communications vendors offered new approaches for enabling more real-time video and presentation broadcasts.

CoSine Communications Inc. announced an update to its switch platform for carriers and services providers that will allow them to offer enterprises managed multicast applications over IP networks. Multicast capabilities allow for the delivery of video broadcasts and other real-time data streams over IP.

CoSine, of Redwood, City, Calif., will support the Protocol Independent Multicast Sparse Mode (PIM-SM) protocol and add the ability for service providers to create virtual multicast routers for individual enterprise customers, said David Messina, CoSine vice president of product management and marketing.

Enterprises have been reluctant to deploy multicast features internally because they often require the replacement or updating of existing routers, the retraining of IT staff and the addition of greater network bandwidth at headquarter locations, Messina said. Yet business users increasingly are demanding applications such as video to the desktop.

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