Content Delivery Networks Content Delivery Networks€¦ · Arrangements among CDN providers can make content delivery easier, provided a means to interconnect. ... Content Delivery

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For Tier 1 service providers, the an-swer is almost certainly “build.” Tier 1s have both the means and the traffi c to justify building their own CDNs. But what about Tier 2s and smaller? The answer is: It depends.

What, exactly, do you intend to de-liver – which is to say, what’s the pay-load? The more you intend to deliver, the more economical it is to build.

Many expect that just as companies like Akamai and Limelight are provid-ing CDN services to content aggrega-tors, programmers and multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs), it’s likely that MVPDs will fi nd that their enterprise customers are also going to develop a need for CDN services. The question then becomes: Who’s going to provide that service?

Source: Azuki Systems

eo Content Delivery Networks Market: Revenue Forecasts (World), 2007-2015

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Video Content Delivery Market

K eep in mind that the founding rationale for content delivery networks (CDNs) is quality of service. Distributing content –especially IP video – from a single source over the open

Internet is to invite poor service. Providing better service was the inspiration for CDNs, which cache content at multiple points on the edge of the network for more effi cient delivery.CDNs were immediately attractive to content aggregators lacking

their own networks capable of delivering massive volumes of IP-based content, notably those companies that provide over-the-top video, such as Netfl ix and Hulu.It’s pretty much a given that CDNs make IP networks more effi -

cient, ultimately cutting network costs. It is also apparent that any-one with an IP network and a big enough library of video open to a large enough pool of potential users can benefi t from a CDN.A service provider can maximize the value of its library and control

the quality of the service. Furthermore, it can turn around and whole-sale the service. All of which explains the recent rush by many of the largest service providers to build their own CDNs.And depending on the size of a service provider’s library relative to

the size of its subscriber base, medium-size network operators –and even some small network operators – might fi nd an economic case for building their own CDNs.Many service providers operate standalone CDNs, but there are

many business reasons to connect CDNs. The proposal is a net-work of CDNs, sometimes called the federated CDN approach. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) late last year formed a work-ing group to defi ne protocols for CDN interconnection.

Build or Buy: Decision Points

The Next Step: CDN Interconnect

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Given that the costs of CDN transport are holding relatively steady, and at some levels actually falling (see Video Delivery Pricing), the growth in the size of the CDN market is driven almost entirely by increases in the amount of traf-fi c being distributed. Video consumption is skyrocketing as more people use more devices to access video both inside and outside the home.

Video Delivery Pricing

– This is per GB delivered pricing, not per Mbps sustained– Volume commits vary from monthly, quarterly and yearly– Cheaper prices can be found for customers who have smaller volume– Customers have different needs and requirements, which determines the fi nal price– Pricing is from major CDNs (Akamai, Limelight, Level 3, Amazon, EdgeCast, AT&T, Highwinds)

Through the fi rst part of 2011, competition in the commercial CDN market had been driving prices down, but fees began to stabilize toward the end of last year because of a shift in the nature of the demand. CDN users were becoming less concerned about the absolute lowest price as they became more interested in quality of service, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Source: Dan Rayburn, CDNPricing.com

Traditional CDN Architecture

Volume 250 TB: High $0.10 per GB, Low $0.05 per GB

Volume 750 TB: High $0.05 per GB, Low $0.02 per GB

Volume 1 PB: High $0.025 per GB, Low $0.15 per GB

Volume 3 PB: High $0.02 per GB, Low $0.01 per GB

Volume 5 PB: High $0.015 per GB, Low $0.0075 per GB

Source: Comcast

Arrangements among CDN providers can make content delivery easier, provided a means to interconnect. The IETF is in the process of defi ning common interfaces in four critical areas: 1) a Control Interface; 2) a Logging Interface, supporting operations such as billing; 3) a Request Routing Interface; and 4) a Metadata Distribution Interface to support content management. Source: IETF

Content Delivery Network Services ProvidersThere are any number of companies that provide some sort of means

to transfer content. While companies such as Akamai and Limelight Net-works dominate the business space, it is useful to recall that even peer-to-peer operations such as BitTorrent by defi nition qualify as CDNs.

The list of companies providing CDN services has been greatly expanded by traditional communications service providers that have two basic choices: building their own CDNs and reselling the CDN services of others. (This list is not comprehensive.)

Commercial CDNsAcceliaAccelionAdvection.netAkamaiAmazon CloudFrontAppStreamBitGravityBitTorrentCacheFly ChinaCacheEdgeCastEdgeStreamFastwebHighwindsLimelight NetworksMirror ImageNaviSiteNetDNA

PEER1Prime Networks Windows Azure

Service provider CDNsAT&TBharti Airtel Bell BroadmediaBT Comcast (Comcast Media Center)Deutsche Telekom Global Crossing Internap Interoute Korea TelecomKPNLevel 3

NaviSite NgenixNTT CommunicationsOrange France TelecomPacnet PCCWReliance GlobalcomSingTelTata Communications TeliaSoneraTelecom ArgentinaTelecom Italia Sparkle Telecom New Zealand TelefonicaTelstraTelus Verizon

CDN platform providersAfl exiAlcatel-LucentBlue Coat BroadpeakBTI SystemsCiscoConvivaEdgewareEnvivioEricssonFabrix.tvHuaweiJet-StreamJuniper OversiPeerAppVerivueXDN

Contentserviceprovider

Interfaces inside the scope of CDN

Interfaces outside the scope of CDN

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Metadata DistributionInterface

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Control

Logging

Request Routing

Distribution

Surrogate

Content Delivery Networks Content Delivery Networks Effi ciency and QoS for IP video networksEffi ciency and QoS for IP video networks