French CDN (Content Distribution Network) technology vendor Broadpeak has introduced transparent caching to optimize delivery of both live and on-demand content for unmanaged OTT services.
Launched at the recent Broadband World Forum 2013 in Amsterdam, this is an extension of the company’s nanoCDN platform unveiled at the same event a year earlier. The objective of nanoCDN was to improve the efficiency of content delivery to the multiscreen home where two or more devices might be viewing the same content. The first release extended the CDN to the home by turning the set-top or gateway into an active end node of the CDN infrastructure, capable of receiving multicast content. That way, the network would just transmit one stream of content even if more than one device in the home was viewing it. This means that the amount of access bandwidth consumed is the same irrespective of how many devices there are in the home and what they are doing.
Now transparent caching complements the first release of nanoCDN by being able to automatically store popular content closer to the user on the basis of demand, to reduce the load on operators’ backhaul and core networks. This works by analyzing usage information sent by the home gateway to a central mediator server. This enables service providers to cache video content closer to end-users based on its popularity, balancing bandwidth against storage costs. Then OTT operators can control the impact on their network of popular content even though they do not have any direct management control. What they can do is decide whether to stream the content on an end to end basis or cache it locally when a lot of people downstream are viewing it. In principle it could even be cached in the premises in the case say of a multi-dwelling unit serving a number of subscribers.
"The first application of nanoCDN resolved live multiscreen consumption peak issues by turning millions of broadband gateways and set-top boxes into active components of the content delivery infrastructure," said Jacques Le Mancq, CEO, Broadpeak. "With nanoCDN's second application, operators can transparently cache live and on-demand over-the-top content resulting in transit cost savings as well as improved QoE for broadband subscribers."
