In my blog last week, I focused on some of the changes and challenges in digital media delivery that vendors likeVelocix (an Alcatel-Lucent company) are developing to help service providers maximize the quality of end user experiences while minimizing network traffic.  In that piece I cited the first article in a two part series by Richard Gibbs, Vice President Worldwide Technical and Business Consulting at Velocix’s article in the Alcatel-Lucent e-zine TechZine, “A New Approach to Publishing and Caching Video.”  It focused on the architecture and design considerations for a Content Delivery Network (CDN).  This post picks up the story with the second Gibbs post, “Optimize Delivery to Meet Demand for “Video Everywhere,” which looks in detail at the delivery, management and control functions needed for efficient CDN operation.

First a little background refresh. A CDN (in the example one architected for a cable TV MSO) is a system of distributed caches containing copies of data, placed within a network to maximize bandwidth for data access. They rely on a series of processes and functions categorized as publishing/storage, caching, delivery, and management and control to assure the delivery of the best quality experiences to end-user devices with the new solutions also ensuring that this is done with minimal strain on network resources.  These processes include: 

Delivery

In his second article, Gibbs noted that delivery is the last step in a chain that includes logging/auditing, encryption, request routing, cache selection, geo-configuration and authentication.  Simply put, delivery means a consumer request is received, authenticated, and then routed to a relevant device for fulfillment.

All delivery interactions with a CDN follow a three step process:

• The publisher domain name server (DNS) issues a redirect to the request router — critical since CDNs only deliver content a publisher has authorized for distribution.
• The request router issues a redirect to a surrogate, which is a delivery cache with replicated content.
• The surrogate serves the content.

Authentication

A critical element for obvious reasons. Protection of intellectual property and getting compensated for its use can only happen when content requests have been properly processed and validated, i.e., authenticated.  Gibbs explained that authentication methods used by CDNs include secure tokens, hash-based message authentication code (HMAC), and Shockwave Flash (SWF) verification. He did not note that all have their strengths and weakness since determined hackers have proven adept at circumventing even the most comprehensive authentication methodologies, but each can be highly effective and the choice of which of them, and possibly in combination, is something to be discussed with your solution provider with consideration for such things as ease-of-use and administration entering the mix.

Other crucial CDN delivery functions are summarized below:

Geo-configuration – mechanism for applying policy to content delivery; defines where content can be stored and where and to whom it can be delivered.

Cache selection – process that determines which cache will deliver the content, taking into account cost, performance, location, and protocol among other factors.

Request routing – combining of all available information about end user, requested resource and state of the network, so the most appropriate surrogate can be selected for content delivery.

Logging/auditing – measurement of delivery events, for reporting and billing purposes. 

Management/control – responsible for the configuration and provisioning of CDN services.

Management and configuration – tools for dynamically configuring services and a balancing them across devices based on load and capacity demand.

Monitoring – components that provider relevant hardware and service alerts when problems occur.

Content owner management and reporting – real-time viewing statistics and delivery information crucial for managing content and delivery portals.

In the blog post, Gibbs recommends that providers use a range of delivery device specifications to achieve consistent delivery and high QoE, since specific content services many require different capacities or capabilities. For example, video on demand (VoD) services require large capacity edge disk caches, whereas live streaming services require higher throughputs and memory rather than larger disk caches.

“The surge in consumer demand for high quality multimedia entertainment on television, personal computers and mobile devices has had a profound impact on the network infrastructures and business models in place,” summarized Gibbs in the blog post.

That is actually a bit of an understatement.  Reality is, based on sales of iPads and other tablets, and the explosive growth of the smartphone population and their users’ insatiable appetites for both streamed and interactive video (from real-time teleconferencing to watch movies to interactive gaming), a tsunami of video traffic is heading operators way and user expectations of quality experiences on every video-enable device they own and operate are high.  The old ways of delivering video to specific places with a limited number of screen types is over. 

New ways of meeting the requirements of the era of demand for digital video being everywhere are necessitating carriers to rethink, and do so quickly, how best to deliver content and do so securely, at high quality, with optimized network performance and at a profit.  To learn more about solutions to the challenges of delivering quality video content everywhere check out the links above and also the Velocix white paper, Video Distribution in the Digital Lifestyle Era…” 

As the consumer appetite for online video content grows, communication service providers (CSPs) find themselves increasingly marginalized in the market. Video content is usually delivered by third-party providers (e.g. companies such as BBC, Hulu, Netflix, CANAL+), which have their own relationships with end users and therefore earn any resulting incremental revenue.

Given marketplace realities, CSPs need to broaden their core businesses beyond merely providing connectivity. They must also offer enhanced digital media delivery. Doing this successfully requires innovative new methods of publishing/storage and caching using next generation content delivery networks (CDNs). These networks enable CSPs to transform themselves into entertainment providers and also allow them to leverage their networks without creating traffic bottlenecks near servers.

Velocix is an Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) company that offers a comprehensive appliance-based CDN solution for CSPs.  Richard Gibbs, Vice President of Worldwide Technical and Business Consulting at Velocix  highlighted in a recent ALU TechZine article, A New Approach to Publishing and Caching Video, that:

 “A CDN is a system of caches containing copies of data…This data is distributed at various points in a network, which maximizes the bandwidth required to access the data from clients throughout the network. A client accesses a copy of the data nearest to the client, as opposed to all clients accessing the same central server.”

He noted that content delivered using a CDN can be downloadable objects like software and documents, as well as applications and real-time media streams.

Velocix advises that when designing a CDN architecture—which differs from internet web-caching services—CSPs must take six key principles into consideration:  availability, operation, performance, resilience, security, and efficiency.

These principles should be applied to the main appliance components of a CDN: delivery nodes, storage nodes, origin nodes, and control nodes. Together, these components perform nine processes and functions, summarized below.

Publishing/Storage - process of acquiring or publishing/ingesting content, using pre-ingest, acquire on demand, and live ingesting models.

Authorization and Registration - process that allows content owners to authorize delivery using the CDN.

Ingest – pre-publishing using standard technologies that allow integration with content management systems (e.g. FTP, RSYNC, third-party upload accelerators, batch control scripts, and programmatic HTTP)

Store – replication of ingested content within the CDN.

Availability – notification provided to the content owner, enabling content to be made available within any delivery portal.

Caching – means of replicating and storing content effectively on edge and storage devices without needing to reacquire content from multiple sources.

Acquisition – mechanism for an edge cache to acquire content from a CDN storage node or origin server for delivery.

Replication – means of physically acquiring or replicating content across distributed caching devices.

Caching – It also is a means of reducing network traffic by delivering content from caches as close to the requesting consumer as possible.

The graphic below shows what the Velocix solution looks like from a high level. 

As can be seen, it is capable of delivering a high-quality, multi-screen solution. When properly set up and utilized through optimal publishing and caching processes, CDNs maximize accessibility and minimize network traffic. They are integral parts of ALU’s vision of a High Leverage Network than enables CSPs to not just be critical parts of evolving next generation services ecosystems, but also positioned to offer new innovative multiple media services of their own.  

The use of video surveillance as a public safety and security tool is growing. Partially, that’s because homeland security regulations and initiatives around the world are driving deployment. It’s also because high capacity wireless data networks have brought down the cost of infrastructure to the point where the ability to provide comprehensive coverage is practical and cost-effective.

However, it should be noted that the initial investment and operation and maintenance costs of video surveillance can be significant. This is highlighted by the fact that protection responsibility is shifting from police/military to infrastructure owners.

“In the US energy market, for example, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation-Critical Infrastructure Protection regulations require that utilities tightly control access to their most important infrastructure,” notes Sheridan Nye, Senior Analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media’s Enterprise Verticals practice, in a LifeTalk article, “Is Video Surveillance Worth the Investment?”

Since the security benefits of video surveillance can be significant, companies and organizations either voluntarily looking to deploy this technology, or those compelled to do so by regulations, are considering a variety of strategies to justify the expense and achieve cost savings. One of these is to look at indirect cost savings that can be viewed as return on investment (ROI) for capital expenditures on security network infrastructure.

For video surveillance systems, Nye notes, ROI is usually indirect, and comes from multiple sources.  He further states that, “Protecting assets … has a direct impact on insurance premiums as well as meeting regulatory requirements.” 

In the U.K., video surveillance is being embraced to counter metal theft, which is a big problem. Copper, which fetches a high (and rising) price, is especially appealing to thieves. The rail industry in the U.K. alone lost £43 million worth of metal in the last three years, and companies are spending at least £12 million each year on security to prevent metal theft.

Although video surveillance may not be able to prevent this theft in the first place, items like pipes and cables can be visibly marked to be traceable if stolen. In fact, situational awareness, public safety officials being able to deploy pervasive video surveillance and potential bad actors knowing it is present, is also a deterrent to potential thieves.

As potentially useful as video surveillance can be for security, it’s especially difficult for public safety agencies to afford the technology, since there have been major funding cuts in the past several years due to the recession. Often, video surveillance is only an option if the cost is shared with other organizations.

“Video is an example of a service that can be shared between the transport service and the police or other agencies like the ambulance service,” Nye points out.  This is why being able to leverage the deployment of LTE is so critical since they dramatically cut the costs of deploying a wired-based video surveillance network and can be share by multiple parties.

In addition, complementary technology, such as motion detectors, can also reduce the cost of operating video surveillance systems. Compressing video to lower quality when precise imagery isn’t necessary can also help by boosting efficiency and network capacity.  

The most recent issue of LifeTalk which features multiple articles on the issues and value of deploying a comprehensive video surveillance capability is worth a read.  It includes a variety of perspective as well as information about the differences between U.K. and U.S. markets, projections for deployment growth along with features on partnering and what the Sao Paulo Militar are doing in Brazil .