Content Delivery Network
Content Delivery Networks are absolutely essential for the efficient distribution of streaming video over the Internet. The CDN is a potentially very large group of servers that are geographically distributed in such a way that end users are in relatively close geographical proximity to a CDN server. Content is delivered from the source, also known as the Origin, to the CDN servers. Let’s say that 10 users are watching the same content and are in the same geographical area. With a CDN solution, the content only needs to be delivered once from the Origin to the CDN server, and then the users on that CDN server will be able to access that content very efficiently.
The term Edge is often used in the context of CDNs. It refers to the CDN servers, or nodes, are at the “edge” of the network rather than further back. The more data that can be accessed from the edges by the users, the quicker and more efficient the access is. Another big benefit is that the CDNs reduce the load on the Origin servers, which makes it possible for the broadcasters to control their costs.
There are a number of specialist providers of CDN solutions, several of which have global coverage.
Links
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network
- Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/cdn/what-is-a-cdn/
- Akamai: https://www.akamai.com/glossary/what-is-a-cdn