CDN gets virtually everywhere
UK telco BT is experimenting with a Virtual Content Delivery Network (vCDN) whose software-born caches allow it to pop-up at selected points in the national comms grid to satisfy huge demands for bandwidth. The typical mobile network network is being choked by requests for the same content. With mobile game releases now exceeding 100GB in size and other events temporarily creating massive traffic, BT refining a traditional network traffic management to make it more flexible. The new vCDN is a ‘mobile thirst responder’ whose software-driven solution to congestion can instantly arrive at the scene of an incident and apply its ‘cache pads’ to instantly decongest the network.
Content Delivery Networks (CDN) and systems are already used to manage network traffic by keeping a cache of the most popular material in a distribution box close to the end-users. BT says the model needs updating. Most CDN infrastructure lacks the scalability and flexibility that content caching needs in the modern network game. As demand for ‘continent’ continues to evolve BT sees vCDNs as a more versatile approach to a wider range of challenges.
Traditional CDNs are tightly coupled with an underlying fixed hardware, which stifles their movements. However, an uncoupling of the system allows the decisions to be software based. This disaggregated software-based vCDN cache can be tactically deployed at a moment’s notice in the places it is needed. This flexibility liberates it to reach selected points, deeper in the network, instantly and to bring content closer to the ‘edge’ where their customers consume it. According to BT, which has been experimenting just such a solution its engineers have been “excited by the initial results” reports analyst Mark Jackson in ISP Review.
It’s like building more delivery stations to get closer to customers but these ones are mobile and can be where the demand is instantly, according to Howard Watson, BT’s Chief Security and Networks Officer. This flexibility supports workload management as content can be cached by software in a specific location for a short period of time. Once a local football derby is over, the virtual content delivery manager can re-shape and ship out.
“By placing the caches deepe’ in the network, the number of network hops needed to distribute content from the edge is reduced,” said Watson, “This frees up network capacity to be and reduces pressure on our core network. This also means a speedier delivery and enables better quality and reliability for customers, whilst offering energy efficiencies to us, through a need for less physical space and lower power consumption.”
In the past year BT has run a live vCDN trial with partners, including Qwilt, a provider of CDN services that is already deployed in BT’s network. Serving a variety of content, from video-on-demand and livestream TV content, to gaming downloads, the trial has successfully shown how a vCDN can enable high-levels of cache efficiency, Watson claimed.
In its latest trial, BT says it saw cache efficiency of 70-90% at peak times with the “highest values for live TV consumption, while popular video game releases also drove very high levels of efficiency. With mobile game releases now exceeding 100GB in size, BT says “wider collaboration” within the comms industry will be needed. Virtual content delivery management could play an important role in the content ecosystem as mobile network operators try to manage the delivery TV and video over their networks, said BT.