Good news from @onepict video.thepolarbear.co.uk/w/fyecXM9ULjsKDpUN3bMiid about the #LibreCast project.
There is even a nice polar bear picture on the website!
librecast.net/
#librecast
We've got some good news thanks to @nlnet and @NGIZero 🎉
Librecast has been funded to do more awesome things with #multicast
Watch this space.
ngi-commons-thanks
@mray @cwebber would love to know as well.
For people not in the know, @librecast is a R&D initiative that's innovating the internet stack with support of @NGIZero and @nlnet
First, to enable #multicast on the unicast internet an overlay network is planned, based on #WebRTC. See:
https://librecast.net/librecast-strategy-2025.html
#Librecast LIVE will bring all the technology together, to demonstrate and be a reference implementation. With #ActivityPub support being planned. See:
@cwebber I'd love to know what you think about #librecast (if you heard of it) in terms of what we "miss, now that there is #ActivityPub ".
Stumbled on a regression in the Linux Longterm 6.12.y #kernel when I upgraded some machines yesterday.
#IPv6 UDP packets were no longer being fragmented as though IPV6_DONTFRAG was set when it wasn't which broke a #Librecast test.
The regression wasn't in the mainline kernel so I spent a happy morning bisecting kernels until I found that a patch had been backported in 6.12.31 without backporting two previous related patches.
Reported to the stable maintainers with a test program. Now I wait.
Dodge the dodgy #AI infested corporate #streaming services and zoom out, as on the #fediverse we own the stream. Here are platforms that offer #streaming of #video or #audio in real time or near real time, with live chat and other #social capabilities.
On the fediverse our 💜 #lifestreams meet people and humanity and we engage our favorite fedi crowds. Fedi is where outreach matters.
#Librecast LIVE. @librecast is a research project aiming to bring #Multicast to the masses.
Had an interesting conversation with someone from the IETF about #multicast today.
Some folks have been trying to solve the problem of getting multicast streams from unicast only sources (Off-net Sourcing) such as browsers.
This happens to be something #Librecast built a demo for back in 2022 as part of #NGI0Discovery and which we're working on again now as part of #NGI0Core thanks to @nlnet so I think we might be able to help.
Thinking about how to explain #librecast can mess with your head:
"Don't list all great things. It sounds too good and people will turn way in disbelief and never understand."
… or maybe I got it all wrong myself!? 🤯
Congratulations on the release, #Librecast team! 🎉
It is a very exciting #multicast use case you are driving lcagent with, and I am looking forward to learn more about your experiences with this #CI setup.
Thank you, for all the hard work!
lcagent can be used to send and receive data over #multicast and to pipe data between programs on one computer and as many receivers as the multicast network can support simultaneously. We're currently using it now to run our own CI builds by multicasting the patch to multiple build servers simultaneously.
This could also be useful for monitoring and configuration management.
#librecast
We've got a new tool! lcagent version 0.1.0, the #Librecast #multicast agent.
In server mode, lcagent can be configured to listen on Librecast Channels (multicast groups) and execute programs in response to packet data received on those Channels.
Packets must be accompanied by an authorized token and signed by the matching key or they will be silently dropped.
Data is encoded with #RaptorQ using Librecast’s liblcrq library to provide forward error correction in the event of packet loss.
@dlakelan @mray You're technically correct (the best kind!)
Yes, SSM is PULL rather than PUSH, so it has one of the properties of multicast, but it is lacking the other characteristics that make multicast special.
SSM relies on knowing in advance the *unicast* IP address of the source.
SSM is unidirectional.
SSM lets one sender shout at everyone else.
SSM is not group communication.
SSM has its uses, and it's easier than true #multicast but it doesn't meet #Librecast 's requirements.
The work continues on #ngicore we've updated our techtree with our progress.
You can follow our roadmap and find out more about our current work on Librecast Overlay Multicast as part of @NGIZero Core.
It's a new release of Librecast! 🎉
This release adds restricted channel support with token based authentication. This allows keyrings to be created and filters to be applied to channels such that any data arriving which is not signed and accompanied by a token issued by an authorised key will be dropped.
With Alonso's "help", I merged in restricted channel support to @librecast today.
This lets a receiver set a filter on an inbound #multicast channel with a keyring and capabilities.
Any traffic arriving must be cryptographically signed and have a token signed by a key on the filter keyring, and have the required capability bits set, otherwise it is silently dropped by standard API recv calls like lc_channel_recvmsg().
#IETF RFC 9777 was released last month, replacing RFC 3810 for #Multicast Listener Discovery ( #MLD2 ).
Reviewing this, aside from a bunch of textual clarifications and fixes, the only real technical change to speak of was an adjustment to the Multicast Address Listening Interval (MALI).
I've patched #libmld and #librecast with the new timer value and the change will be included in the next release.
"...much of the research into multicast is funded and driven by large corporations, who have no interest in many-to-many communication, and no interest in human rights. The primary focus of most of these corporations is in building one-to-many systems that reduce their costs for providing livestreaming of sponsored events. Multicast to them is an advertising delivery system. This more closely resembles broadcast than multicast."
#BrettSheffield, #Librecast project, 2025
Just a reminder that you can - and arguably should - move your Free Code development activities off GritHub;
"The Librecast Project has moved it's public code mirrors to Codeberg. As a Free Software project we cannot stand idly by while GitHub breaks both the spirit and the letter of our software licenses with their CoPilot programme."
#Librecast project, 2023
https://spectra.video/w/mhoTtoSoXtkjanF1qZHwRZ
They've even shared the script they used for the transition;
Yes, I was similarly delighted, but found out very late. Hopped on a session.. hoping to be able to hop onto some more.
I also watched the start of a true must-see video by Brett Sheffield of @librecast ..
"Zen and the Art of Multicast: An Inquiry Into Values" 💗
https://www.librecast.net/fluconf-2025/
#multicast #librecast #nlnet #ngi #fluconf #fluconf2025 #covid #CoCPledge
Client Info
Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.04
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst