Technology
Next Generation Content Delivery Architecture
The Rise of Broadband Video
Multiple network operators are exploring commercial broadband video initiatives, including on-demand video portals, Internet TV services with linear programming, Internet catch-up TV and more.
Their interest in Internet Video is driven by the challenges Internet Video creates for their traditional Internet and video offering, and the opportunity to meet the increasing demand for Internet-based content. The Internet-based content offers consumers more variety, more flexibility and more interactive features than traditional TV-based entertainment formats.
In recent 12-24 months Tier1 multi-play operators worldwide have embarked on “three screens” video strategy – to create converged video offering that would be available on TV, PC and mobile.
While Internet Video services offer a great opportunity for network operators to increase monetization of their two core assets – existing network and subscribers’ base - they are also looking for ways to launch these new services without creating significant incremental cost.
“Open Garden”
In the past, network service providers have deployed “closed garden” content services, which served as only way for the consumers to access media and entertainment. The opportunity offered by open broadband access created the new class of “over-the-top” content providers that establish direct relationship with broadband subscribers.
The Internet created the culture of “long-tail” content, making possible specialized content services that cater to the full spectrum of consumer preferences.
As the operators seek to establish themselves in the broadband content value chain, they find that consumers are expecting to have access to multiple content sources.
The new reality of “open garden” requires the operators to support multiple business models, including their own Internet TV services, hosting 3rd party content services on their network and providing services to the “over-the-top” services, national and global.
The Content Aware Access Network
The Internet video is the largest consumer of the operator’s network capacity today. With emergence of a whole set of IP-connected home electronics and the ongoing migration to HD video, this class of broadband traffic is expected to drive the growth of bandwidth consumption and further increase its bandwidth share.
In order to avoid commoditization as “bitpipe” providers and reduce the cost impact on their networks, network service providers must participate in the delivery and monetization of a significant share of the broadband traffic flowing to their subscribers.
To support the required scale, the operators’ content delivery infrastructure must come out of datacenters into the network and be integrated into network QoS layer.
Network QoS Convergence
With multiple content services delivered to broadband subscribers over shared network infrastructure, the operators shall seek to differentiate, and eventually monetize, services by improving their quality and offering SLAs that deliver performance superior to standard Internet best effort performance.
In order to deliver such SLAs, the operators are going to leverage the next-generation network elements, capable to impose of imposing network QoS based on Layer7 application awareness. For content delivery and network QoS layers to act in concert in service delivery, they need to share a common view of operator’s services and policies associated with these services.
The Power of Multi-Play
The most recent commercial Internet video monetization successes have been advertisement-supported business models. Network service providers are now in position to drive traditional paid subscription business models.
They can further maximize their revenues by integrating broadband content services into their multi-play service offering. In order to do so, operators’ content delivery systems must integrate with OSS/BSS systems.
The Need to Rethink Content Delivery
As network operators plan for and launch their initial Internet video services, they will realize the need to develop a comprehensive view of Internet content services delivery on their network.
The converged architecture for content delivery must address the following issues:
These requirements highlight the necessity for network service operators to reassess their reliance and dependence upon global CDN provider services. Network operators must roll out their own content delivery capability primarily due to business model misalignment between network operators and CDN providers. Moreover, this set of requirements mandates the necessity to rethink global CDN practices when deploying content delivery capabilities directly in the access network.
The Rise of Broadband Video
Multiple network operators are exploring commercial broadband video initiatives, including on-demand video portals, Internet TV services with linear programming, Internet catch-up TV and more.
Their interest in Internet Video is driven by the challenges Internet Video creates for their traditional Internet and video offering, and the opportunity to meet the increasing demand for Internet-based content. The Internet-based content offers consumers more variety, more flexibility and more interactive features than traditional TV-based entertainment formats.
In recent 12-24 months Tier1 multi-play operators worldwide have embarked on “three screens” video strategy – to create converged video offering that would be available on TV, PC and mobile.
While Internet Video services offer a great opportunity for network operators to increase monetization of their two core assets – existing network and subscribers’ base - they are also looking for ways to launch these new services without creating significant incremental cost.
“Open Garden”
In the past, network service providers have deployed “closed garden” content services, which served as only way for the consumers to access media and entertainment. The opportunity offered by open broadband access created the new class of “over-the-top” content providers that establish direct relationship with broadband subscribers.
The Internet created the culture of “long-tail” content, making possible specialized content services that cater to the full spectrum of consumer preferences.
As the operators seek to establish themselves in the broadband content value chain, they find that consumers are expecting to have access to multiple content sources.
The new reality of “open garden” requires the operators to support multiple business models, including their own Internet TV services, hosting 3rd party content services on their network and providing services to the “over-the-top” services, national and global.
The Content Aware Access Network
The Internet video is the largest consumer of the operator’s network capacity today. With emergence of a whole set of IP-connected home electronics and the ongoing migration to HD video, this class of broadband traffic is expected to drive the growth of bandwidth consumption and further increase its bandwidth share.
In order to avoid commoditization as “bitpipe” providers and reduce the cost impact on their networks, network service providers must participate in the delivery and monetization of a significant share of the broadband traffic flowing to their subscribers.
To support the required scale, the operators’ content delivery infrastructure must come out of datacenters into the network and be integrated into network QoS layer.
Network QoS Convergence
With multiple content services delivered to broadband subscribers over shared network infrastructure, the operators shall seek to differentiate, and eventually monetize, services by improving their quality and offering SLAs that deliver performance superior to standard Internet best effort performance.
In order to deliver such SLAs, the operators are going to leverage the next-generation network elements, capable to impose of imposing network QoS based on Layer7 application awareness. For content delivery and network QoS layers to act in concert in service delivery, they need to share a common view of operator’s services and policies associated with these services.
The Power of Multi-Play
The most recent commercial Internet video monetization successes have been advertisement-supported business models. Network service providers are now in position to drive traditional paid subscription business models.
They can further maximize their revenues by integrating broadband content services into their multi-play service offering. In order to do so, operators’ content delivery systems must integrate with OSS/BSS systems.
The Need to Rethink Content Delivery
As network operators plan for and launch their initial Internet video services, they will realize the need to develop a comprehensive view of Internet content services delivery on their network.
The converged architecture for content delivery must address the following issues:
- Optimization of network costs associated with future commercial content delivery on a large scale (e.g. 15-30% of total access network bandwidth)
- Support for delivery of multiple content services in a scalable fashion
- Service level assurance and differentiation from over-the-top “best effort” Internet traffic
- Integration into policy frameworks as well as OSS/BSS systems to enable folding Internet content services into operators’ multi-play services portfolio
These requirements highlight the necessity for network service operators to reassess their reliance and dependence upon global CDN provider services. Network operators must roll out their own content delivery capability primarily due to business model misalignment between network operators and CDN providers. Moreover, this set of requirements mandates the necessity to rethink global CDN practices when deploying content delivery capabilities directly in the access network.
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PeerApp Technology |  |
| Over 65% of the today’s consumer broadband bandwidth is being consumed by Internet Video and file sharing services based on HTTP and P2P protocols. UltraBand’s Software provides a network operator with 20 Gbps scale and is the only multi-service, multi-protocol Media Caching and Content Delivery solution. It supports an open system architecture and eliminates the need for point solutions or proprietary hardware. It supports all of the most popular Internet Video services and applications from a single caching cluster. Benefits
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