Understanding The Components of a Streaming Media Network – Part 1

Benefits Of Installing CDN Infrastructure
Network managers have long recognized the need to control network resources in order to improve the network utilization, reduce costs and provide for an enjoyable end user experience. A number of hardware and software components make up the network infrastructure allowing the network manager to get the job done. Firewalls and caching proxies conserve precious bandwidth by caching content and throttling any malicious activities. A structured network of email servers and gateways not only reduce network traffic but also make life easier by providing email address books, mailing lists, calendars and email virus scanning.

Imagine doing away with all the proxies, firewalls and email servers on the network. Odds are the network would become a logjam of network traffic as the bandwidth is consumed by redundant and low priority data traversing those expensive network links. High priority traffic may be bogged down by lower priority network traffic sucking up all the available bandwidth. Client may be traversing expensive wide area network links to access content that may be available locally. Nothing would be in place to prioritize network traffic and make efficient use of those expensive network links.

Many corporate networks that have not installed any streaming media infrastructure may be suffering from this fate. Low priority media streams may be saturating network links making higher priority media streams unavailable. Clients may be traversing expensive wide area network links to access content that may have been delivered across the local area network at a fraction of the cost. Some servers may be overloaded while others sit idle waiting for requests.

With streaming media making its way onto the corporate network many IT managers are finding that they are in need of the streaming media network infrastructure. A CDN, Content Distribution Network, is the infrastructure needed to manage all the streaming media applications on a corporate network. With this infrastructure in place, a network administrator can monitor the usage of streaming and make sure network resources are being used appropriately. The end result is a superior experience for the end user as well as efficient use of the network resources. The infrastructure required to run a CDN revolves around a core set of functions. This set of functionality includes content replication, load balancing/client direction, historical reporting, network monitoring, streaming services and content management.

Page 2: Content Replication >>