Cisco Cisco Service Router Application White Paper
Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG)
Cisco IBSG © 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
10/11
Point of View
Content Delivery Network (CDN) Federations
How SPs Can Win the Battle for Content-Hungry Consumers
By Scott Puopolo, Marc Latouche, François Le Faucheur, and Jaak Defour
As consumers demand ever-greater amounts of high-quality content over the Internet,
service providers (SPs) are finding it difficult to increase revenues while containing costs.
This is due mainly to two trends: (1) over-the-top (OTT) content providers have outsourced
the delivery of content to pure-play content delivery network (CDN) companies, and (2) traffic
growth (with no resulting revenue benefit) is increasing network build-out and maintenance
costs for SPs.
service providers (SPs) are finding it difficult to increase revenues while containing costs.
This is due mainly to two trends: (1) over-the-top (OTT) content providers have outsourced
the delivery of content to pure-play content delivery network (CDN) companies, and (2) traffic
growth (with no resulting revenue benefit) is increasing network build-out and maintenance
costs for SPs.
In response to these challenges, many SPs began to utilize CDNs within their own networks.
The initial focus was to reduce content-transport costs and improve the quality of content
delivery to their own customers. Over time, individual SPs started offering CDN services to
OTT content providers as a way to earn extra income from the content flowing over their
networks. While this approach has helped, results have been limited.
The initial focus was to reduce content-transport costs and improve the quality of content
delivery to their own customers. Over time, individual SPs started offering CDN services to
OTT content providers as a way to earn extra income from the content flowing over their
networks. While this approach has helped, results have been limited.
As demand for content continues to increase worldwide, OTTs would rather work with fewer
individual companies for the delivery of their content. Given this situation, SPs are now
exploring the potential of CDN federations, which the Cisco
individual companies for the delivery of their content. Given this situation, SPs are now
exploring the potential of CDN federations, which the Cisco
®
Internet Business Solutions
Group (IBSG) defines as multi-footprint, open CDN capabilities built from resources owned
and operated by autonomous members.
and operated by autonomous members.
CDN federations benefit SPs, content providers, and consumers:
●
SPs
can lower costs by pooling their resources
●
Content providers
can reduce business complexity by dealing with fewer companies
●
Consumers
receive better quality of service (QoS)
Given the clear benefits of this approach, Cisco is involved in a number of CDN-related
initiatives to accelerate the move to CDN federations. For example, Cisco subject-matter
experts have championed and are now co-chairing a CDN Interconnection working group at
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) dedicated to the standardization of protocols
needed for establishing a CDN federation.
initiatives to accelerate the move to CDN federations. For example, Cisco subject-matter
experts have championed and are now co-chairing a CDN Interconnection working group at
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) dedicated to the standardization of protocols
needed for establishing a CDN federation.
Most recently, Cisco has started working with several leading SPs worldwide to plan, deploy,
and test an open CDN federation pilot. The main goal of this initiative is to move the SP
industry from a great idea to a market reality that can deliver clear benefits to SPs, provide a
and test an open CDN federation pilot. The main goal of this initiative is to move the SP
industry from a great idea to a market reality that can deliver clear benefits to SPs, provide a