Managing content for revenue

Managing the growth
of video over IP
The media-content equation contains three parameters: content consumers, content providers and content delivery. All three elements affect the way technology will develop to create a universal cost-beneficial media system and each one is driven by diverse motivational factors.


IGNACIO MAS, ALAN EVANS, PAUL STALLARD, AYODELE DAMOLA

Background
TV and video consumer behavior is changing. While broadcast TV is still popular for news and live events, con­sumers are using a wider variety of platforms and different ways to view content. There is a very obvious shift towards media services that focus on the individual, are simple to use, and deliver on-demand content in a way that meets user expectations for qual­ity. There is an increase in on-demand spending among consumers that is driv­en by the quality of the user experience, ease of access and good content. In short, users are willing to pay if the content, experience and price are right.
The change in the way people
consume content . 50 percent of con­sumers now use internet TV on a weekly basis1 . has led to an increase in network data traffic. Mobile data
traffic doubled in 2010 and is set to
double every year for the next three years2. The growth in connected
devices and increased access to video indicate that both the behavior shift and data traffic growth will continue.
Content providers want to sell their products at competitive prices, contin­ue to create revenue from advertising and deliver a personalized experience catering for each consumer. They want to do this while maintaining brand val­ue by ensuring that content is delivered according to user expectations and users get what they pay for.
Operators will incur increased costs to deliver increasingly large amounts of data efficiently while keeping custom­ers satisfied. There are various business models that operators can adopt to man­age the traffic growth and create new revenue streams by developing services.
Media Delivery Network
Ericsson introduced its Media Delivery Network (MDN) to help oper­ators cope with the growth in man­aged and unmanaged content. MDN includes three core functions: content
delivery network (CDN), transparent internet caching (TIC), and service and
performance enhancers (S&PEs). These
functions enable fixed and mobile
operators to:

create new revenue streams via whole­sale content distribution and delivery;

differentiate through S&PE; and

reduce operational costs and capital expenditure.
Handling the massive amount of  OTT or unmanaged traffic is a major busi­ness challenge for network operators. Better compression techniques and improved connections have created a new business model in which countless video-based applications are generating
substantial amounts of unmanaged traffic. Examples include YouTube, Apple TV, Netflix and applications from national broadcasters, such as BBC iPlayer, SVT Play, CBS Video and many others. Typically, these types of
premium OTT services employ the
capabilities of a CDN service provider. The CDN service provider distributes OTT content based on the agreement with the content owner across the inter­net as far as an exchange point, or in some cases further into an operator’s network when a cooperative agreement has been reached.
OTT applications can present net­work operators with several challenges:

rising backhaul transit costs;

mounting last-mile bandwidth demands coupled with decreasing subscription revenues; and

deeper penetration of CDN service pro­viders’ caches in operator networks.
With internet traffic set to double every year over the next few years and the total market for CDN services estimat­ed to exceed USD 5 billion by 2015, fixed and mobile network operators are investing in CDN solutions to efficiently
manage the predicted traffic growth, and to explore new revenue opportunities
by positioning themselves inside the digital-content value chain. Ericsson’s MDN is designed to assist network
operators to overcome these challenges.
High-level MDN use cases
There are four high-level use cases for Ericsson’s MDN. The first three are illus­trated in Figure 1, while the fourth . CDN federation . is shown in Figure 3.
Operator-managed
In the first use case for MDN,
operators efficiently deliver their own content to their subscribers. Here, the operator acquires content at a negoti­ated cost directly from content owners or aggregators, which can be viewed on a TV platform (IPTV for example), or on a variety of connected devices such
as PCs, tablets, game consoles and mobile phones. Subscribers pay the operator for access to the content. MDN provides the operator with a unified delivery infrastructure capable of dis­tributing content across its network with minimum impact on the core, as well as providing the means to deliver that content to a wide variety of user devices. MDN replaces the traditional vertical silos that are usually deployed to provide these types of services,
resulting in a simplified architecture and lower operating costs.
Wholesale CDN
External content providers buy
content-delivery capacity from the operator. MDN helps to minimize the
traffic impact on the operator’s network, as well as providing a better quality
of service (QoS) to end users, whose
content will be delivered from edge nodes located close to their network access points. Content providers benefit from improved delivery of their content by using the operator’s optimized MDN-delivery capacity . saving them from having to purchase delivery capacity of their own . and from increased end-user retention due to the improved QoS.
MDN provides external content pro­viders with a comprehensive user inter­face through which they can manage and monitor content and access full usage reporting. Through wholesale dis­tribution and delivery capabilities, MDN supports the operator to provide CDN services to multiple content owners in parallel with long-term agreements or on an event-by-event basis.
In addition to pure content distribu­tion and delivery, MDN allows the oper­ator to offer content management and adaptation services, such as ad insertion and rights management. These value-added services provide further benefit to the content providers and additional revenue opportunities for the operator.
OTT service caching
OTT services are characterized by the lack of a business relationship between the content provider and the
operator. In this use case, MDN’s TIC capabilities allow the opera­tor to minimize the cost of deliver­ing OTT services. TIC is transparent to both the content provider and the consumer of the service. TIC helps the operator to significantly reduce
peering and transit costs, as well as reducing the need to invest in internal network upgrades to support growing volumes of OTT traffic.
Some content providers are con­cerned that TIC adversely impacts their business by obscuring service usage
and reducing advertising revenue. Although these fears can be allayed by modern TIC solutions that preserve application logic, some content service-
providers intentionally undermine transparent caching by signaling
content as un-cacheable or by using hashed URLs.
TIC provides a good short-term
solution to minimize the impact of OTT traffic. The long-term strategy for most operators would be to create wholesale CDN agreements with the most prolific OTT content traffic generators.
CDN federation
CDN federation . or CDN peering . allows independent CDNs to cooperate and deliver services across CDN bound­aries. One CDN might, for example,
acquire content that is accessed by a
subscriber located nearer to anoth­er CDN. CDN federation allows the CDN closest to the user to deliver the desired content and for the two CDNs to
reconcile carriage payments and usage reporting. CDN federation has a number of important applications:

off-net distribution . operators can make content on their CDN available
to subscribers outside their footprint.
CDN federation supports global content delivery by enabling operators to buy capacity in peered CDNs;

operator-to-operator peering . a
collection or federation of CDNs appear as a single CDN. Internally, the CDNs aggregate usage information and cross-charge for carriage in much the same way as mobile operators do today with roaming. The federation model enables operator-based CDNs to compete for global content customers, who are likely to favor a single contract with one CDN with global reach over separate negotia­tions with each individual operator; and

global CDN-to-operator peering . global CDNs provide improved QoS to the edge of operators’ networks. Global CDNs federate with operator CDNs, purchas­ing capacity to deliver content deeper into the network, increasing QoS.
Although not a new concept, there are still no established standards for CDN federation. A significant amount of activity is ongoing to define a
common standard within the inter­national standards organizations, including IETF, ETSI and ATIS. In the
meantime, however, bespoke and ad-hoc CDN federations are forming. The emergence of a global standard will drive content providers to accept CDN
federation and may fundamentally change the global CDN market.
MDN functional architecture
As illustrated in Figure.4, MDN includes three core functions: Content deliv­ery network; Service and performance enhancers; and Transparent internet caching. These functions enable fixed and mobile operators to reduce opex and capex by caching unmanaged OTT content, generating new revenue streams through wholesale content dis­tribution and delivery capabilities, and to differentiate themselves through enhanced service and performance.
Managed content:
content delivery network
The functional network architecture
for a CDN integrated in an operator’s network is illustrated in Figure 5. Today, the control interfaces are not standardized and the main functional groups are as follows:

ingest function . receives new content and updates to existing content from the content owner. It contains procedures to store content in the CDN master storage and gets instructions from the ingest control function on how to handle updates and add new content;

ingest control functions . authenticate content and content owners and respect business agreements with content own­ers. Ingest control can create, modify and delete metadata, check the consis­tency of metadata, deliver content to master storage and report usage
statistics back to content providers;

content metadata storage node . is
a database that contains metadata
relating to content, such as: ownership, SLAs, ad insertion rules, distribution area rules, and locality and charging principles relative to the consumer;

master storage . is where the master copy of content is stored. Content is then typically replicated to a set of dis­tributed content storage areas;

content delivery control (CDC) . receives or intercepts content requests from a client device. Its decision logic determines what content to deliver and from which storage. The CDC controls the format and packaging, including
personalization and ad insertion;

content distribution logic (CDL) . is the brain of the system, determining where in the network each piece of content should be stored. CDL functions control where copies of content are stored, maintain consistency between master content and copies, initiate replication from one storage area to another and delete content from a storage area;

content storage area . contains copies of content either from the master data storage node, a peer content storage node or content fetched on-the-fly;

content delivery function (CDF) . pack­ages content  in response to a client or CDC request, acting on the decisions made by the CDC. CDF first fetches requested content and then delivers it to the requesting client, including protocol functions for HTTP, HTTP streaming
and Flash;

broadband network functions .
performs L1/L4 network commands
in an operator’s network and includes functions for transport, access, edge, authentication and security;

subscriber and network data database . contains subscriber and operator net­work information, such as HLR, charging and user location, as well as network topology and fault status data;

broadband client and access termina­tion . handles access and connection to the operator’s broadband network; and

client function . the application used by, for example, standard web clients or IPTV clients.
Transparent internet caching
Unlike CDN architecture, TIC has no control-plane interface to the content owner. TIC is transparent . the content owner and the TIC do not interact with it and content owners are unaware of its existence. Due to its transparency, TIC has a thinner control layer than the CDN architecture, it has no master data storage, no ingest or ingest control functions, and no related BSS functions.
The user-plane interface between the TIC system and the content source is managed through broadband network functions. The TIC system captures requests and content by intercepting them in the normal user-data plane. TIC-specific functions are DPI and per­form content-management actions to ensure that captured and stored con­tent are synchronized with the original, maintaining accurate maps between URLs and content.
The TIC CDC is a light version of its CDN peer; TIC architecture lacks meta­data information and is less complex, as it only uses a subset of information.
Consequently, there is less need for control functions in the TIC system, and as most TIC control decisions can be taken locally in the network, all TIC functions can be naturally grouped into a single node type . the TIC node. Physically, this node will scale with: storage area, output delivery capacity and DPI capacity to identify content and requests. The TIC node is local by nature and may be physically integrated into another network element.
Service and performance enhancers
S&PEs are typically part of the TIC or CDN  delivery node, such as: fast chan­nel change for IPTV, or compression and optimization functionalities for content adaptation in mobile networks.
CDN research activities
For some time now, Ericsson’s CDN research group has been investigating content distribution technology with the aim of reducing bandwidth costs for operators. Several concepts have been explored: traffic redirection, caching, multi-protocol delivery, content migra­tion and redundancy elimination. These concepts have been applied to both fixed and mobile network architectures.
Traffic redirection addresses the impact of P2P file-sharing traffic on operator network bandwidth. The research group developed a method
to reduce bandwidth utilization of
P2P traffic in fixed-broadband access
networks using forced-forwarding techniques. This method involves local switching of P2P traffic at the DSLAM level instead of at the broadband-access router level. By eliminating the traffic tromboning effect, this method avoids wasting bandwidth.
The commercial deployment of
IPTV systems presented a new research challenge: is P2P technology a viable method for redistributing video; in
other words, utilizing the storage and computing resources of the end users’ STBs. This research developed the
concept of multi-protocol CDN, by using several delivery protocols to bring
content from the operator’s video
head-end to the end user’s terminal. A time-shift TV prototype was developed based on P2P, unicast and multicast
protocols. Multicast was used to populate
network-based caches and caches in STBs
during linear TV transmission. Once
the linear TV distribution phase
is complete, queries for previously transmitted TV programs result in a P2P request to the network caches and
other STBs. This approach conserves network resources, as peers located closest in the network topology to the requesting STB serve the request.
Deploying caches in a network topol­ogy creates a new challenge: how to
intelligently replicate content across these caches. A set of algorithms were developed to keep track of request rates for different content assets in a given section of the network and to decide whether to move or migrate content to caches closer to where most of the requests originate. These algorithms consider end-user quality of experience,
number of content replicas in system, traffic load across network links and at the network peering point. The
algorithms were implemented in a
prototype that showed a reduction
of overall bandwidth utilization both across the network and at the network
peering point.
Terminal mobility and security
architecture present additional chal­lenges to content distribution in 3GPP networks. For example, the presence of a GTP tunnel between the GGSN and the RNC limits the placement of
caches in the mobile network. Session continuity after mobile handover can be problem for video-streaming, where the cache is collocated with the RNC. To address this issue, a method based on redundancy elimination was pro­totyped. Two new functions . payload remover and payload inserter . together with a cache were introduced both in the core and at the access edge. These func­tions work as traffic compressors and decompressors, reducing the amount of traffic in the network link. This method enables seamless and stateless
handling of mobile handover. The
prototype showed that substantial
traffic reduction in the mobile backhaul
network is possible.
Further studies are ongoing in the area of caching at the RNC. Simulations have shown that cache equalization
during off-peak hours enables the cache hit-rate of the system to equal that of a single large cache. Two modes for the RNC cache are being considered: transparent proxy mode enabling
traffic reduction; and CDN server mode enabling hosting. Operators have
varying needs and preferences and will be able to select the cache mode that is appropriate for them.
Conclusions
Changing user behavior and growing network traffic raise a business need for efficient media distribution and
delivery. Ericsson’s Media Delivery Network addresses this need and helps operators reduce costs and increase rev­enue. The  Ericsson solution differs from standard CDNs, as it includes media-specific capabilities as well as option­al network awareness. MDN combines capabilities such as wholesale content distribution and delivery, transparent
internet caching and service enhancers that can be deployed as overlay architec­ture, embedded in network nodes.
In Ericsson’s view, both fixed and mobile operators will continue
to be an important link in the
digital-content value chain. Operators are best supported by a solution that enables them to manage both media traffic from the internet and traffic
generated by OTT applications, while at the same time reduce transit costs and increase revenue by packaging their media-plane capabilities.


BOX A   Terms and abbreviations

3GPP        3rd Generation Partnership Project
ATIS        Alliance for Telecommunication
                Industry Solutions
BB                broadband
BSS        Business Support System
CDC        content delivery control
CDF        content delivery function
CDL        content delivery logic
CDN        content delivery network
DPI        deep packet inspection
DSL        digital subscriber line
DSLAM        DSL access multiplexer
ETSI        European Telecommunications                         Standards Institute
GGSN        Gateway GPRS Support Node
GPRS        General Packet Radio Service
GTP        GPRS Tunneling Protocol
HLR        home location register
HTTP        Hypertext Transfer Protocol
IETF        Internet Engineering Task Force
IPTV        Internet Protocol TV
MDN        Media Delivery Network
OSS        Operational Support System
OTT        over-the-top
P2P        peer-to-peer
QoS        quality of service
RNC        radio network controller
S&PE        service and performance enhancer
SLA        Service Level Agreement
STB        set-top-box
TIC        transparent internet caching
URL        Uniform Resource Locator

ERICSSON REVIEW  .  1  2011

FIGURE 1   Example use cases for Ericsson’s MDN


FIGURE 2   From unmanaged to managed data traffic



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Managing content for revenue

FIGURE 3   CDN federation use case


FIGURE 4   The three components of Ericsson’s MDN solution


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FIGURE 5   Functional architecture of MDN


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Managing content for revenue

  FIGURE 6    Caching and content migration prototype


ERICSSON REVIEW  .  1  2011

Ignacio Mas  

is a system architect at Ericsson Group Function Technology and is a senior specialist in networked media architecture. He holds a Ph.D. in telecommunications from the Royal
Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stock­holm, and an M.Sc. from both KTH and UPM (Madrid Polytechnic University). He joined Ericsson in 2005 and has worked in IETF standardization, IPTV and messaging architectures, as well as media-related activities for Ericsson Research. He is a member of the
Ericsson System Architect Program (ESAP) and has research interests in quality of service, multimedia trans­port, signaling and network security, IPTV and, lately, cloud computing.

Alan Evans      

Alan Evans is director of systems management at Ericsson Business Unit Multimedia. After joining the company in 1998 he worked in
Systems Integration, Systems Engi­neering, Product Management and
Solutions Architecture. He is currently responsible for driving the portfolio and technology strategy of Ericsson’s Multimedia Business Unit. Alan holds a B.Sc. in electronic design engineering from the University of Huddersfield, UK.



Paul Stallard  

is vice president of
systems management at Ericsson Television. He joined Ericsson in 1998, and has worked in Research, Engineer­ing, Product Management and Solu­tions Architecture. In his current posi­tion he is responsible for coordinating the direction of Ericsson’s television portfolio. He holds a Ph.D. in electronic engineering from Bath University, UK, and prior to joining Ericsson was a lec­turer in computer science, specializing in computer architecture and network protocols.


Ayodele Damola      

is an experienced
research engineer at
Ericsson Research. His
research area is content delivery networks and his current
focus is content delivery and caching in mobile networks. He joined Ericsson in 2005 after receiving his M.Sc. in in­ternetworking from KTH, Stockholm.


References

1.        Ericsson ConsumerLab, TV and Media Insights,
http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2011/tv_and_media.pdf
2.        Ericsson Annual Report 2010,
http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/investors/financial_reports/2010/
annual10/sites/default/files/Ericsson_AR_2010_EN.pdf

ERICSSON REVIEW  .  1  2011