Overlay Services (GEA Multicast)

25 February, 2024

GEA Multicast (Generic Ethernet Access Multicast) helps cut down the bandwidth your network uses for internet TV.

Multicast means a one-to-many data transmission. It’s an efficient way to use the network infrastructure because it only sends the source data once – no matter how many customers it’s going to. 

GEA Multicast gives you a point-to-multipoint network layer service that you can use to send IPTV (or other data streams) to your end customers. It “broadcasts” streams to the node, and then on to the viewer. Sending less traffic across the network frees up backhaul network capacity. It’s available over both FTTC and FTTP, and you’ll need a GEA Cablelink at the handover point.

Benefits

Free up your backhaul network – No need to duplicate unnecessary data streams.

Great for internet TV and more – While it’s used mostly for broadcast IPTV and video applications, you can also use GEA Multicast to stream live one-to-many data. So that’s things like live share prices, pre-downloads for media or software, and firmware updates. 

High network priority – Multicast for GEA traffic has higher priority than other GEA traffic, giving viewers reliable sound and video.

Grows with your customers – You can scale up easily as more people use it. 

Help and support

You can find information about using this site, advice on services and help with your account on our help and support pages.

Industry information

Are you interested in having a say in how the industry meets its customers’ needs? You can find out more about getting involved on our industry forum pages. 

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