Network implications of multicast in electronic commerce

Electronic commerce (EC) systems have been in existence for many years. In the financial industry, for example, electronic trading has been in place for well over a decade. Momentum has gathered pace to the point where EC is considered at least an essential adjunct to a company's business or, in some cases, the primary means of connecting vendors to their customers. This momentum has been at least, partly inspired by the convergence of content, commerce, communication, and the Internet. In many EC systems, the state of the market (current value and availability of goods and services) or another event needs to be disseminated to consumers so that they can take actions based on the information. IP multicasting is an emerging network technology that can greatly improve the efficiency of providing such information.