quarta-feira, 28 de novembro de 2012

Important Facts On The CDN Service

By Ethel Harris


CDN or content delivery network refers to a large system of servers that are distributed in various data centers to serve the internet. The CDN service helps users to access information easily and fast. The available servers help with the access of content such as web objects (scripts, graphics, texts and URLs), applications, live streaming media, social networks and downloadable objects among others.

The network provider is paid by the vendor of the content. The provider in turn pays ISPs, network operators and carriers for hosting the servers in the data centers. The other role of this network is to offload traffic originating from the content provider. This helps in saving on operation costs. Other functions include protection of data from Dos attacks by using the distributed server infrastructure to absorb attack traffic.

A common finding is that many network providers own and run most of the servers in use. Peer-to-peer or P2P technology is a new trend in the industry. Under this arrangement, the provider uses servers belonging to their peers in the industry in addition to their own. Application service providers (ASP) or on-demand software is the most commonly used software. There are several large content vendors that have their own CDNs.

The necessary nodes are located in multiple sites and distributed over a number of backbones. There are several benefits that accrue from this arrangement. Perhaps the most important of them is the fact that running costs are markedly reduced. These may either come as direct savings such as reduced bandwidth costs or indirect as reduced traffic. The nodes usually number up to several thousands.

Received requests are redirected in an algorithmic manner to the optimal nodes. The optimal are determined by measuring the number of network seconds between the client and the available servers. The server with the least seconds is chosen. Other than performance, cost is another determining factor. The less expensive nodes are usually chosen.

With increased requests for video streaming, there is a high level of traffic on most networks. Huge amounts of investment are required by broadband providers to maintain the service at high quality. A cheaper option is for the providers to start their own content delivery networks. Many companies are increasingly adopting this and have reported numerous benefits.

There are two techniques used to balance the load on the server. They include the service-based and the hardware-based techniques. The latter is also known as content switch. Both options work by facilitating the sharing of traffic among the available servers and web caches. The content switch is given a unique virtual IP address and when traffic arrives, it is redirected to the servers attached to this switch.

The CDN service has been a great development as regards internet use and is bound to play an even bigger role as more improvements continue to be made. Newer forms of CDN have a number of advantages over the traditional ones. One of such advantages is the fact that providers are now able to deliver their content closer to the clients since they are cached deeper in their network. Deep caching also helps in the reduction of the distance travelled by video data.




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