The inSORS Grid: IG Basics

How the IG Works

To create a dynamic, scalable, multimedia communications platform, the IG combines advanced distributed-computing technologies enabled by multicast Internet Protocol (IP) networks with inSORS' Virtual Venue software to connect groups of people within virtual room environments. These environments, or virtual spaces, offer a natural portal through which audio, data, and video streams are propagated and forwarded to all who are part of a single multicast group. Within the IG, this group is easily and instantly created once multiple locations click on a single virtual room link located in the IG Virtual Venue.

This many-to-many technology offered by inSORS' Virtual Venue software and multicast IP networks is in contrast to typical unicast networks. Whereas within a unicast environment applications send one copy of each packet to each member of a receiving group (extremely bandwidth-intensive), within a multicast network environment applications send only one copy of each packet and address it to the group ID of participants who want to receive it, saving both bandwidth and server load. This single group ID is assigned to any physical location that requests to be a part of a particular group or community. And it is inSORS' Virtual Venue software that addresses the intricacies of creating multicast group IDs as well as provides the interface necessary to offer the efficiencies and scalability inherent in this environment.

Unicast sends a separate stream to each receiver, while multicast sends
one stream that is separated at the multicast routers on the way to its destination

The result of this technology is an IG Virtual Community. An optimized IG Virtual Community embodies the feel and supports the natural interactions offered by its physical counterpart. The characteristics and functions of these virtual communities are extraordinarily analogous to physical spaces in that they allow disparate groups to hear, see, and share data with each other simply by moving together from several locations to one. The difference, of course, is that up to 30 of these groups can be physically dispersed across all reaches of the globe —yet still, via inSORS' Virtual Venue, move together in a way that enables each location to see, hear, and share data with every other location as if they were all together in a single physical space.