ASTi's Model Builder software features a rich set of tools provided for building and running complex networks of virtual radios and intercoms. Model Builder also gives you the ability to assign radios and intercoms to multiple Internet Protocol (IP) Multicast groups.
This allows you to: 1) route desired transmissions directly to specific receivers, 2) exclude others from receiving that transmission, and 3) restrict local traffic to the local subnet, and away from the wide area network. This translates into dramatic improvement in your network's efficiency. Network congestion is reduced, end-to-end network bandwidth is conserved, and the processing burden at receiving nodes is eased.
This extension to the Model Builder communications toolkit is a standard feature available at no extra cost. As an added benefit, the enhanced IP Multicast feature works with commercially-available multicast routers; no proprietary network infrastructure components are needed.
ASTi developed this enhanced feature to help solve internetwork bandwidth problems resulting from transport of voice stream datagrams using IP Broadcast. This is an inefficient way to send DIS transmissions, because every network node must process every broadcast packet, causing unnecessary network congestion. Then, every DIS host on the subnet must receive the broadcast datagrams, inspect them, and either process wanted datagrams or discard unwanted datagrams, an unnecessary use of host processing power.
The problem is worsened as comms networks get more and more demanding. The IP Broadcast internetwork traffic generated by extensive dialup/conferencing intercoms and WAN links to other virtual radios and intercoms can cripple wide area network segments and remote hosts.
ASTi solved this problem by adding powerful, yet easy-to-use, IP Multicast tools to our Model Builder application. Setting up IP Multicast groups of radios and intercoms is a snap. Model Builder automatically handles the creation of multicast groups as you create radio and intercom objects.
DACS nodes are connected to multicast-capable LAN routers, and Model Builder sends each radio and intercom traffic to the multicast addresses you specify. You are in complete control of your DIS traffic flow.
Call ASTi to find out more about increasing the efficiency of your communication network using Model Builder's enhanced IP Multicasting. Also, be sure to check out our example of Multicast Routing in effect.