Sponsor:
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Chair of Excellence of Bank of Santander – UC3M, the National Science Foundation, NSERC and the Spanish projects CRAMnet (grant no. TEC2012-38362-C03-01), and MEDIANET.
Optical Flow Switching (OFS) is envisaged as an efficient solution for ultra-broadband end-to-end Internet data transfers. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of providing multicast services over a recently proposed UltraFlow access network that offeOptical Flow Switching (OFS) is envisaged as an efficient solution for ultra-broadband end-to-end Internet data transfers. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of providing multicast services over a recently proposed UltraFlow access network that offers two types of access service to its end-users at the same time: IP over GPON and OFS. Our focus is set on the viability of multicast in this dual-mode access concept. This paper studies several application scenarios for multicast UltraFlow access and makes a preliminary assessment of practical feasibility of this service.[+][-]