Network Communications News (NCN) October 2017 | Page 19

THE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK
every regional ISP? The simple
answer, economics.
For Netflix, each point of
presence is the cost of a single
server (between $10,000 and
$20,000), but deploying caching
for a multitude of customers
and content types would require
hundreds of servers per location.
Furthermore, since Netflix directly
controls the end user application,
the complex logic for determining
when to stream from a Netflix
server can be built into the
application itself. If we wanted to
accelerate arbitrary websites – we
would need a way to help ‘direct’
the browser to caches inside
the local ISP. But a new breed of
delivery platforms has seemingly
cracked the code – using peer to
peer assisted networks.
Deliver like Netflix: Peer
assisted content delivery
networks
In a peer to peer (P2P) model,
devices communicate directly
with each other rather than
centralised ser vers. This is
the model employed by most
video chat systems (FaceTime,
WhatsApp Etc.).
By leveraging P2P technology,
and combining this with browsers
that are already built in cache,
peer assisted CDN’s such as
Edgemesh are able to offer a
Netflix style localised delivery to
customers, without the complexity
of deploying in-situ server
infrastructure.
Peer accelerated CDN’s utilise
the browser native Web Real
Time Communications (WebRTC)
protocol to enable direct browser to
Netflix takes
an innovative
approach to
getting content to
its customers
browser connectivity. Once content
is downloaded into a regional
network, it can then be replicated
across other devices transparently
– allowing multiple users to access
the same content without ever
leaving the local networks. For
Edgemesh, 100% of the required
functionality is delivered in the
browser. This allows customers
to add mesh capability with no
additional software installation
content viewers.
Unlike traditional models,
where chokepoints exhibit the
worst per formance precisely when
the most users are active – mesh
networks have reverse scaling.
The more users who access the
content, the larger the overall
network capacity and the faster
the experience comes. Stretching
across more than 100 countries,
mesh acceleration results are
surprisingly consistent. P2P
accelerated content is delivered
on average 32% faster than
traditional CDNs alone, while
reducing backbone bandwidth by
up to 90%.
In summary, we are still in the
early days of the edge computing
revolution, but with data rates
continuing to explode and the
army of IoT on the horizon – the
mesh network model is changing
the way the internet works.
More information: Edgemesh
edgemesh.com
October 2017 | 19