[Icecast] load constraints

[Dan Stowell]

Hi Iain,

It's a simple answer:

> For example, if a box on a 128kbps upload connection is
> serving a 64Kbps stream (and not audio-on-demand) - is it limited to two
> connections

Yes it is.

> or is icecast somehow more efficient?

No - icecast can't work miracles! The underlying technology of the
internet (the way it is at present, at least) only allows a packet of
information to be sent to one computer, so icecast needs to replicate
each chunk of data for every client it wants to broadcast to.

Ways to get round this (apart from getting a very fat pipe) include
setting up relays so that more than one computer (more importantly,
more than one internet connection) is broadcasting the signal, which
means you have to have some way of 'distributing' your listeners among
the relays (you'll see lots of discussion about relays in the
archive).

Dan



On 17/05/05, Iain Mott <mott at reverberant.com> wrote:
> hello
> 
> Another beginners question..... I've been googling through the icecast
> archives looking for information on how icecast handles multiple
> clients. Haven't been able to find what I'm looking for.
> 
> Could someone please explain (or direct me to links) what happens to the
> upload bandwidth of a box running icecast, when more than one client
> connects? For example, if a box on a 128kbps upload connection is
> serving a 64Kbps stream (and not audio-on-demand) - is it limited to two
> connections or is icecast somehow more efficient?
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Iain
> 
> --
> Iain Mott
> www.reverberant.com
> 
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