It is estimated that the live and on demand video represented 66% of the global internet traffic in volume in 2022, and the 10 days with the highest internet traffic in 2024 coincided with live broadcast events such as Jake Paul’s boxing combat against Mike Tyson and the NFL coverage.
Streaming allows fluid access and on demand to video content, from online games to short videos such as Tiktoks, and more extensive content such as movies, podcasts and NFL games.
The aspect that defines streaming is its nature on demand. Consider the overall scope of an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast or live coverage of the Spacex Crew Dragon spacecraft: Both examples demonstrate how streaming connects millions of spectators with real -time and on demand content worldwide.
A computer scientist, whose research includes cloud computing, explains what the distribution of computer resources such as video servers through the Internet consists of.
‘Fragments’ video
When it comes to video content, whether a live transmission or a pre -recorded video, there are two main challenges to address. First, video data are huge, which makes its transmission from the source to devices such as televisions, computers, tablets and smartphones slow.
Second, the transmission must be adaptable to configure the differences in the devices and the internet capacity of the users. For example, spectators with lower resolution or slower Internet speeds should be able to see a specific video, although with lower quality, while those who have higher resolution screens and faster connections enjoy the best possible quality.
To address these challenges, video suppliers implement a series of optimizations. The first step is to fragment the videos in smaller fragments, commonly known as “fragments.” These fragments are subjected to a process called “coding and compression”, which optimizes the video for different resolutions and bits rates to adapt to various network devices and conditions.
When a user requests a video video, the system dynamically selects the adequate fragments sequence based on the capabilities of their device, such as screen resolution and current Internet speed. The user’s device video player assembles and reproduces these fragments in sequence to create a fluid visualization experience.
For users with slower Internet connections, the system offers lower quality fragments to guarantee fluid reproduction. Therefore, it could notice a decrease in video quality when the speed of its connection is reduced. Similarly, if the video is paused during playback, it is usually due to the fact that its player is waiting for the supplier to store additional fragments.
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How is the latency in the network and saturation of users in streaming avoided?
Distribute large -scale video content, whether pre -recorded or live, is a significant challenge if the immense amount of videos consumed worldwide is extrapolated. Streaming services such as YouTube, Hulu and Netflix huge content libraries to the letter, while managing innumerable live broadcasts worldwide.
A seemingly simple approach to distribute video content would imply building a massive data center to store all videos and related content, and then transmit them to users around the world through the Internet. However, this method is not the most popular due to its important challenges.
An important problem is geographical latency, where the user’s location with respect to the data center affects the latency it experiences. For example, if a data center is located in Virginia, a user in Washington, DC, would experience a minimal latency, while a user in Australia would face much larger delays due to the greater distance and the need for the data to cross multiple interconnected networks. This additional travel time slows the delivery of content.
Another problem is the congestion of the network. As more users around the world connect to the central data center, interconnection networks are increasingly saturated, resulting in frustrating delays and storage in video buffer. In addition, when the same video is simultaneously sent to several users, the duplication of data that travels through the same Internet links wasted bandwidth and further congests the network.
A centralized data center also creates a unique failure point. If the data center suffers an interruption, no user can access its content, which causes a total service interruption.
Content delivery networks
To address these challenges, most content suppliers resort to content delivery networks. These networks distribute content through dispersed points globally, which are clusters of servers that store locally copies of high demand content. This approach significantly reduces latency and improves reliability.
Content distribution networks, such as Akamai, Amazon Cloudfront and Fastly, implement two main strategies to implement presence points.
The first is the “Enter Deep” approach, where thousands of smaller presence knit nodes are located closer to users, often within the networks of Internet service providers. This guarantees a minimum latency when the content is closest to the end user.
The second strategy is “Bring Home”, which involves deploying hundreds of clusters of larger presence points in strategic locations, usually where ISPs interconnect: Internet exchange points. While these clusters are further from users than in the Enter Deep approach, they have greater capacity, which allows them to manage greater traffic volumes efficiently.
Infrastructure for a connected world
Both strategies seek to optimize video transmission by reducing delays, minimizing bandwidth waste and guaranteeing a fluid visualization experience for users around the world.
The rapid expansion of the Internet and the boom of video transmission, both live and on demand, have transformed the way the video content is delivered to users around the world. However, the challenges of managing massive quantities of video data, reducing geographical latency and adapting to the variation of user devices and Internet speeds require sophisticated solutions.
Content distribution networks have become the cornerstone of modern transmission, allowing efficient and reliable video delivery. This infrastructure satisfies the growing demand for high quality video and highlights the innovative approaches necessary to meet the expectations of a connected world.
*Chetan Jaiswal is an associate professor of computer science, University of Quinnipiac
This text was originally published in The Conversation
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