Content Delivery Networks : Fundamentals, Design, and Evolution

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Title:

Personal Author:

Robinson, Dom

Physical Description:

xvii, 232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

ISBN:

9781119249870

Subject Term:

Computer networks

Internetworking (Telecommunication)

Available:*

Library	Item Barcode	Call Number	Material Type	Item Category 1	Status
Searching... PSZ KL	33000000002926	TK5105.5 R63 2017	Open Access Book	Book	Searching... Unknown

Summary

The definitive guide to developing robust content delivery networks

This book examines the real-world engineering challenges of developing robust content delivery networks (CDNs) and provides the tools required to overcome those challenges and to ensure high-quality content delivery that fully satisfies operators' and consumers' commercial objectives. It is informed by the author's two decades of experience building and delivering large, mission-critical live video, webcasts, and radio streaming, online and over private IP networks.

Following an overview of the field, the book cuts to the chase with in-depth discussions--laced with good-natured humor--of a wide range of design considerations for different network topologies. It begins with a description of the author's own requirement filtration processes. From there it moves on to initial sketches, through considerations of stakeholder roles and responsibilities, to the complex challenges of managing change in established teams. Agile versus waterfall considerations within large blue chip companies, security, commercial models, and value chain alignment are explored in detail. Featured throughout the book are numerous "what if" scenarios that help provide a clear picture of the wide spectrum of practical contexts for which readers may be tasked with building and implementing a CDN. In addition, the book:

Discusses delivery of live, catch-up, scheduled on-demand, TVOD and SVOD Offers insights into the decisions that can to be made when architecting a content distribution system over IP-based networks Covers CDN topologies, including Edge-Caching, Streaming-Splitting, Pure-Play, Operator, Satellite, and Hybrid Examines computer hosting and orchestration for dedicated appliances and virtualization Includes real-world cases covering everything from IETF, regulatory considerations, and policy formation, to coding, hardware vendors, and network operators Considers the future of CDN technologies and the market forces driving its evolution

Written by a back-room engineer for back-room engineers, Content Delivery Networks gets readers up to speed on the real-world challenges they can face as well as tried-and-true strategies for addressing those challenges in order to ensure the delivery of the high-quality content delivery networks that clients demand and users expect.

Author Notes

Dom Robinson is Co-Founder and Director of Innovations at id3as, London, UK. With more than two decades in the field, Robinson is one of the pioneers in online video, streaming media, and content delivery networks. His company, id3as, has been at the forefront of cloud delivery of live video at-scale, and is responsible for the software that powers a wide range of high profile online publishers, including NASDAQ, Perform, Intelsat, Arqiva and numerous others. He writes for StreamingMedia.com, is a Visiting Lecturer at Sussex University, Chairs a number of CDN and related Conferences, and frequently is quoted by industry magazines as a CDN and technical networks expert.

Frontispiece	p. xiii
Topics Include	p. xiii
About the Book	p. xiv
Synposis	p. xiv
Unique Perspective	p. xv
Market Need	p. xvi
Audience	p. xvii
1 Welcome	p. 1
1.1 A Few Words of Introduction	p. 1
1.2 The "Why" of this Book	p. 2
1.3 Relevant Milestones of the Personal Voyage	p. 3
2 Context and Orientation	p. 9
2.1 History of Streaming	p. 10
2.1.1 Foundations - What does "Streaming" Really Mean?	p. 12
2.1.2 Streaming	p. 13
2.1.3 Related Network Models	p. 16
2.1.4 Physical Network Considerations	p. 16
2.1.5 Internet Layer Considerations	p. 17
2.1.6 Transport Layer Considerations	p. 17
2.1.7 Applications - Transport Protocols	p. 18
2.1.8 Protocol Evolution	p. 19
2.1.9 Format Evolution	p. 25
2.2 Industry Evolution	p. 25
2.2.1 "Stack Creep"	p. 26
2.2.2 Real World - Blue Chips and Video Delivery Networks	p. 26
2.3 Consumer Adoption	p. 29
2.3.1 The Audience	p. 29
2.3.2 Traditional Ratings Companies and Audience Measurement	p. 32
2.3.3 Streaming Media and Measurement	p. 34
2.3.4 Predictions of Others	p. 37
2.3.5 The Pending Collapse of the Value of Broadcasting to Advertisers	p. 41
2.3.6 "Device Effect" and Formats	p. 41
2.3.7 Video Formats (in Particular, Multicast and UDP) and Network Architecture	p. 43
2.3.8 Discovery, Curation, and Social Media	p. 45
2.4 Encode > Serve > Play	p. 54
2.4.1 The Basic Building Blocks	p. 54
2.4.2 The Acacia Patent	p. 55
2.4.3 Akamai vs. Limelight	p. 57
2.4.4 Standards, Standards, Standards,...	p. 58
2.4.5 D-Book Connected TV Standards from the Digital Television Group	p. 60
2.4.6 The CoDec Concerns	p. 61
2.5 What is a CDN: A Simple Model	p. 63
2.5.1 Setting the Scene for CDNs	p. 63
2.5.2 CDNs as Money Savers	p. 66
2.5.3 Request Routing	p. 67
2.5.4 CDN Brokerage	p. 69
2.5.5 SaaS Models within the CDN Ecosystems	p. 70
2.6 Cloud Inside - New Generation	p. 75
2.7 The Three Generations of CDN	p. 76
2.8 Software Definition	p. 82
2.8.1 Multicore CPU and Functional Programming	p. 86
2.8.2 Functional Programming and Containers	p. 86
2.9 "Service Velocity" and the Operator	p. 87
3 Workflows	p. 89
3.1 Live Event Focus	p. 92
3.1.1 Approaches to Webcasting	p. 93
3.1.2 Think Before You Start - Your Client Probably Hasn't!	p. 94
3.1.3 Budgets	p. 95
3.1.4 Objectives - Quality vs. Reliability	p. 97
3.1.5 Production Principles	p. 98
3.2 Backhaul/Contribution and Acquisition	p. 102
3.2.1 Broadcast	p. 104
3.2.2 Wire	p. 104
3.2.3 Wireless	p. 107
3.2.4 Satellite	p. 108
3.2.5 3g/4G CellMux	p. 109
3.2.6 Reliable UDP and HTTP/UDP Solutions	p. 111
3.2.7 Throughput vs. Goodput	p. 112
3.3 Cloud Saas	p. 113
3.3.1 In Workflow "Treatment" (Transcode/Transmux, etc.)	p. 114
3.3.2 DVR Workflows	p. 117
3.3.3 Catch-up Workflows	p. 119
3.3.4 VOD Workflows	p. 121
4 Publishing	p. 125
4.1 Publishers, OVPs, CDNs, and MCNs	p. 126
4.2 Small Objects, Large Objects, or Continuous Streams	p. 129
4.2.1 Compression	p. 132
4.2.2 The "Quality Question" ...	p. 134
4.2.3 Latency	p. 136
4.2.4 Application, Site, Web, and Games Acceleration	p. 137
4.3 Desktop and Device Delivery Applications	p. 138
4.3.1 Standalone Media Players and Applications	p. 138
4.3.2 Video Tags in HTML5	p. 141
4.3.3 WebRTC - Beyond HTML5	p. 142
4.4 Request Routing (The Dark Art of the CDN)	p. 142
4.5 Logging Analytics and the Devil in the Detail	p. 143
5 Service Velocity	p. 145
6 Charging for IP-Delivered Content	p. 151
6.1 Lessons from the Music Industry	p. 151
6.2 Success Cases	p. 153
6.2.1 YouTube	p. 154
6.2.2 Netflix	p. 155
6.2.3 On the Horizon	p. 156
6.3 Failure Cases	p. 158
6.3.1 Scour.net	p. 158
6.3.2 mp3.com	p. 159
6.3.3 Napster	p. 160
6.3.4 Broadcast.com	p. 160
6.3.5 The "Yacht Projects"	p. 162
6.4 General Commentary on Commercial Models	p. 163
6.4.1 Cable TV	p. 164
6.4.2 IPTV	p. 165
6.4.3 OTT Pureplay + Operator CDN	p. 166
6.4.4 Fog Distribution	p. 167
6.4.5 Variation from Live Linear to VOD, and Everything in Between	p. 168
6.4.6 DRM	p. 169
6.4.7 Watermarking	p. 171
7 Competition and the Regulatory Environment	p. 175
7.1 ISOC, ITU, and WSIS	p. 176
7.2 Policy - Net Neutrality	p. 179
7.3 Value Chain Alignment with QoS and SLA Propositions	p. 181
7.4 Layer-2 Workaround?	p. 181
8 Cultural Change	p. 183
8.1 Traditional Broadcasters	p. 183
8.2 The Millenial Subscriber	p. 185
8.3 ISP and Content Providers	p. 186
8.4 Telco and Telecoms	p. 188
8.5 Content Providers	p. 188
9 Preparing for Change in Your Design	p. 191
9.1 Preface and Philosophy	p. 191
9.2 Models, Diagrams, and Schematics	p. 193
9.3 How to do a Good Diagram?	p. 193
9.4 Scenario Planning	p. 194
9.5 Risk, Responsibility, and Reassurance	p. 196
9.6 Optimization and Upsell	p. 196
9.7 Value Creation/Agility	p. 197
9.8 Expectation Management	p. 197
10 Multicast - the Sleeping Giant	p. 199
10.1 Multicast Recap	p. 199
10.1.1 Basics	p. 199
10.1.2 Routing Protocols	p. 200
10.1.3 Flood, Prune, Storms, and a Bad Taste	p. 201
10.1.4 Commercial Outcome	p. 201
10.2 What Happens Now?	p. 202
10.3 To Singularity and Beyond	p. 204
11 Deep-Dives (Case Studies)	p. 207
11.1 Hitting the TV Screen - IPTV/Hybrid TV and OTT	p. 207
11.1.1 The Taxonomy of OTT Video	p. 210
11.1.2 Arqiva Connect and Freeview Plus	p. 214
11.2 Creating Nasdaq's Cloud-Based Virtual Workflow	p. 217
11.2.1 The Genesis of a Virtual Workflow	p. 218
11.2.2 The Technology Behind the Workflow	p. 219
11.2.3 Why Amazon EC2?	p. 220
11.2 A What Sort of Scaling Issues did You Face?	p. 222
11.2.5 How about SLA?	p. 222
11.2.6 What about Signal Acquisition?	p. 222
11.2.7 What about OS Choices and Stacks?	p. 223
11.2.8 How Is the System Controlled?	p. 223
11.2.9 How Does it Report?	p. 224
12 Wrap Up	p. 225
Index	p. 229

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Table of Contents