multicast technical overview

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Octoshape’s Multicast Technology Suite:The Next-Gen CDN Alternative for Large-Scale, Cost-Optimized, Global HD Streaming

Core Transport ..........................................................................................................................................................................4

Making Best-Effort Networks Perform Like Provisioned Networks .......................................................................4

How it Works .............................................................................................................................................................................4

Benefits of The Resilient Transport Approach ...............................................................................................................6

Multicast Technologies ..........................................................................................................................................................7

Multicast - Reborn ...................................................................................................................................................................7

Simulated Multicast ................................................................................................................................................................8

Native Source-Specific Multicast .......................................................................................................................................9

AMT (Automatic Multicast Tunneling) .......................................................................................................................... 10

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Octoshape’s Multicast Technology Suite | Table of Contents

2Octoshape’s Multicast Technology Suite


Octoshape’s Multicast Technology Suite:The Next-Gen CDN Alternative for Large-Scale, Cost-Optimized, Global HD Streaming

Octoshape has developed and deployed an innovative new streaming media technology that changes the fundamental rules for the Internet video delivery ecosystem. Our software system breaks the current relationship between server distance and quality of the video, which has constrained current content delivery network (CDN) technology by quality, scale, region and cost.

These constraints force traditional CDNs to deploy massive amounts of servers and networking equipment in order to scale and sustain quality for large streaming events to far-flung audiences. TV-quality viewing experiences often require at least five times more bandwidth than standard web experiences. This kind of capacity isn’t widely available on the Internet today.

Further, traditional CDNs have to plan for the audience size multiplied by the bit rate of the stream and plan to scale their network infrastructure to accommodate peak audiences in each region. This costly capital expenditure keeps CDN price points for large streamed events exorbitant and well beyond the reach of a large potential customer base.

Even a single broadcasting company would have trouble reserving enough traditional CDN capacity for an event with an audience of one million simultaneous viewers at 2 Mbps (2 Tbps).

Octoshape’s technology eliminates the need for this onerous and resource-devouring process for content creators, broadcasters and aggregators worldwide, while providing the following benefits:

∞ The highest, constant-quality video;

∞ The largest-scale audiences;

∞ Global OTT reach; and

∞ Economics unattainable by other technologies.


Core TransportAt its core, Octoshape solves the problem that traditional Internet video delivery technologies have today:

∞ Variable throughput

∞ Distance and geography constraints

∞ Poor performance in congested, last-mile, and mobile networks

∞ Traffic distribution scale models that are unsustainable because of capital and operational costs

Making Best-Effort Networks Perform Like Provisioned NetworksOne of the keys to the constant quality Octoshape provides over best-effort networks lays in the core resilient-coding algorithms employed in the transport.

Octoshape’s core transport approach uses a unique, resilient-coding scheme inside a UDP transport.

This scheme enables Octoshape clients to:

∞ Survive packet loss without the data overhead of forward error-correction (FEC) schemes, and

∞ Pull data from multiple sources simultaneously, while only actually consuming the data rate necessary to recreate the stream.

How it Works

A video stream is pulled into the Octoshape system. For the purpose of this example, assume the video stream is a 1 Mbps stream of data.

LIVE STREAM ENCODE SERVER DATA STREAMLETS VIDEOEVENT

THROUGHPUTOPTOMIZEDSOURCE STREAM


Octoshape breaks the stream up into many unique 250kbps streamlets as it is replicated across the streaming server complex. The streams are coded in a way that 20 unique streamlets may exist across the Octoshape server complex, but only 4 are needed to recreate the original 1 Mbps stream for the user.

This approach enables the Octoshape client on the end user’s viewing device to tune into multiple streamlets at once, with these sources transparently prioritized based on quality. If a streamlet source is behind a congested route or goes offline for some reason, the system pulls in other stream sources to take its place.

The underlying transport provides throughput optimization using UDP transport. Resiliency normally provided by TCP is replaced with Octoshape’s resilient coding scheme. By contrast, the Octoshape approach removes the overhead requirement for resilient delivery from the client. Octoshape’s technology works with standard media formats including Flash, Windows and MPEG2_TS.

In the Octoshape scheme, the outbound stream from the encoder is sent to a local processor called the Octoshape broadcaster. This software processes the stream and sends it in the Octoshape throughput -optimized protocol to the Octoshape ingest servers in the cloud. This stream is resilient, and supports active active and active passive redundancy modes.

Once ingested, the data is replicated as streamlets and sent to the Octoshape distribution servers in the cloud or to those located on the Octoshape server complex.

LIVE STREAM OCTOSHAPE BROADCASTER SOFTWARE

DATA STREAMLETS VIDEOEVENT

1MbpsTHROUGHPUTOPTOMIZEDSOURCE STREAM

STANDARDENCODE SERVER

1Mbps

250kbps250kbps250kbps250kbps


The Octoshape client on the computer, or other connected device, that is consuming the stream requests a stream first. It is quickly fed a full stream from one of the servers in the cloud to achieve instant on or instant channel change.

The system quickly notifies the Octoshape client of a cloud of resources from which it can pull the data. Within seconds, the client has a multi-path option to consume portions of the stream. It then begins to profile the connections for latency and packet loss, creating a quality-ranked resilient mesh of sources for the video. As a result, any source could drop out, any packet could be lost, a data center could be knocked out, or a fiber could be cut, and the consumer will not see a frame drop in the video.

This underlying resilient transport approach has several benefits:

1 It creates a constant bit-rate TV-like experience. The UDP resilient flow does not have the variable characteristics of a normal TCP flow. Therefore, while Octoshape features Adaptive Bit Rate technology, it does not rely on that technology very often because once matched with a bit rate, users stay put – and so does content.

2 Since the enabling Octoshape technology is multi-path, it acts as a smooth and easy back-off mechanism as the load increases in the last mile. If a link becomes congested, Octoshape notices the increasing jitter, packet loss and latency. The technology moves traffic off of an affected link to other less-congested ones. In the last mile, this evenly load balances the traffic inbound to the last mile, opening up and leveraging the capacity available on all the pipes, instead of just congesting one pipe like traditional CDN technologies.

3 Since the resilient UDP flow is not subject to packet loss and latency of a TCP based technology, the high-quality video can attain global reach. Regional infrastructure constraints are no longer an issue. That means that data can be served from locations where bandwidth, power, cooling, and space are inexpensive.

4 The technology also enables Octoshape to perform very efficiently over best-effort networks including 3G and 4G infrastructures. Because TCP technologies tend to create more overhead as the conditions get more challenging, the Octoshape approach is the most efficient way to send data over wireless networks.


These core innovations have made way for dramatic architectural improvements, and have enabled distribution methods over the Internet that have before been challenged. Two of these innovative methods take the brains behind and inside the Octoshape Multicast Suite of technologies and Octoshape’s Cloudmass service.

Multicast TechnologiesWhen large broadcasters buy streaming capacity from traditional CDN’s, they cannot buy from companies that have small streaming media complexes, for example in the 50Gbps range. The majority of these companies have heavy traffic and often large spikes. As a result, these customers have to buy services from companies that can handle the large spikes. These are often companies – perhaps only two or three today – that can offer reservations in the 500Gbps range.

In contrast, Octoshape has already supported the largest video events on the Internet including the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009. Octoshape was able to sustain the bit rate through the peak of the event, where traditional technologies, crippled by congestion, would only been able to sustain 70 percent of the video bit rate, and then would buckle under the load.

Octoshape technology has a magnifying effect on companies with smaller streaming resources, making companies that have capital investments in streaming infrastructure equal to about 50 Gbps appear as a company that has invested capital infrastructure to support a 500 Gbps network.

Where the far larger provider only has 500 Gbps of capacity deployed regionally due to the relationship between distance and quality, the Octoshape-enabled provider can now compete globally without constraint.

Octoshape’s suite of three Multicast technologies – Native Source-Specific Multicast, Automatic Multicast Tunneling, and Octoshape Simulated Multicast – provide the magnification affect.

Multicast - RebornMulticast has been restricted to provisioned networks. It is used in the enterprise, or in managed IPTV systems where the congestion and packet loss can be controlled and managed. There are many reasons Multicast has not been widely adopted across the public Internet, one being that it is not a resilient transport mechanism in native form.


In the Octoshape system, the process starts with a standard off-the-shelf encoder. Octoshape supports major video formats such as Flash RTMP, Windows Media, RTSP/TS, and MPEG2_TS, as supported by top vendors such as Digital Rapids, Inlet, Elemental, Viewcast, FME, Microsoft and Newtek.

In the case of Flash, Octoshape provides a small piece of software called the Octoshape broadcaster that can be installed directly on the encoding device or on another computer local to the encoder. To the encoder, the Octoshape broadcaster looks like a Flash Media Server. The encoder is configured in exactly the same was as it has been traditionally, so to the encoder, Octoshape is transparent.

Octoshape takes the stream and applies the throughput optimization technology to the stream to improve the Internet path between the encoder and the Octoshape cloud. Once in the cloud, the stream is ready for distribution.

Simulated Multicast

In this model, the Octoshape-enabled media player tunes to an Octoshape stream. The Octoshape server complex in the cloud immediately sends instant stream start data down to the last mile, enabling the video to begin playing.

The Octoshape system then begins sending a list of valid sources, enabling the client to create a resilient mesh of stream sources. As other clients begin to tune into the stream, the Octoshape system adds them to the valid resource pool that is communicated to other clients.


DATA STREAMLETS

LAST MILENETWORK 1

LAST MILENETWORK 2




1Mbps Each



The Octoshape client then begins pulling small bits of data from these participating clients just as it would from cloud server resources. These participating clients are ranked along with the server resources for stream quality based on jitter, latency and packet loss. The client constantly adjusts the amount of data flowing from each source based on the quality of incoming data.

As an event evolves, other participating clients in the region, ISP, last mile, or office begin to provide higher-quality data than the server resources from the cloud. When this occurs, the data begins to be delivered from the edge, instead of from the cloud server complex.

Native Source-Specific MulticastOne distribution option has Octoshape inject the stream into the Native Multicast cloud of a last-mile provider. Octoshape provides a piece of software to the provider that resiliently pulls a stream, or set of streams, into the last mile and injects it into the Native Multicast environment of the provider. The provider would give Octoshape a pool of SSM (s,g) addresses to manage for these streams.

When an Octoshape-enabled client tries to tune into the Octoshape URL for the stream, the Octoshape cloud will send data to the client that enables the stream to begin instantly. The Octoshape cloud then starts communicating a list of valid resources from which the client can extract data.


DATA STREAMLETS

MULTICAST ENABLEDISP LAST MILE #2


OCTOSHAPEMULTICAST RELAY

MULTICAST ENABLEDISP BACKBONE



NATIVEMULTICAST


1Mbps

1Mbps

1Mbps

1Mbps Each

As-NeededResiliencyStreamlets


Typically, these are server resources in the cloud. But in this example, one of the valid sources is a native SSM address. The user is watching high-quality video. Meanwhile, Octoshape is attempting to receive data from the native multicast source. Since this particular client is connected to a native multicast domain, it begins to receive data from the multicast source, and therefore de-prioritizes the data from the cloud.

Trace amounts of resiliency data are still pulled from the cloud in case there is packet loss on the native multicast feed. In cases of packet loss, the cloud sources are reprioritized to fill the gaps. In this case, Octoshape is transparently managing cloud delivery and native multicast sources in parallel.

AMT (Automatic Multicast Tunneling)AMT is another option for efficiently moving video data to the edge of the network in instances where native multicast is not enabled. AMT is a multicast tunneling process built into router code that can bridge a multicast and non-multicast domain. It can extract one copy of the video into the last mile, and serve multiple copies as a relay from there.

For this case, the last-mile provider has some portions of the last mile enabled with Native Multicast, and some that are not. As in the previous scenario with Native Multicast, Octoshape can inject the streams into the native multicast domain of the last mile.


DATA STREAMLETS



OCTOSHAPEMULTICAST RELAY

MULTICAST ENABLEDISP BACKBONE

1Mbps

1Mbps


AMTTUNNEL

NON-MULTICAST ENABLEDISP LAST MILE #1

As-NeededResiliencyStreamlets

1Mbps

1Mbps

1Mbps MULTICAST ENABLEDROUTER

AMT ENABLEDROUTER

1Mbps Each


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© 2011 Octoshape. All Rights Reserved. The Octoshape brand and logo are trademarks of Octoshape ApS. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others.

The client that is on the non-native multicast portion of the network seeks to tune to the stream. The media player requests the stream from Octoshape, and the Octoshape server complex in the cloud immediately sends instant stream start data to the last mile, enabling the video to begin playing. The Octoshape server complex begins to send alternative sources from which the client can pull resilient data. Among these sources is the Native SSM address.

The Octoshape client in the background attempts to tune into this SSM address and immediately finds it unavailable since it is not connected to the native multicast domain. The Octoshape client then sends an Anycast request out to find the closest AMT relay, if available. The closest relay responds to the request, and tunnels to the native multicast domain to pull one copy of the stream into the AMT relay.

The Octoshape client then begins to receive the feed from the native AMT relay. If bits are dropped along the way, the Octoshape client fills the holes by drawing from the cloud.

Note, that these native multicast and AMT multicast models apply in enterprise and last-mile networks.

ConclusionOctoshape has created the most efficient transport protocols for the delivery of constant bit rate content across best-effort networks such as the Internet, fixed wireless and mobile infrastructures. The technology uses standard media formats and standard media players.

The transport protocols eliminate the traditional barriers to optimal streaming of media, the chief among them being the relationship between distance from the streaming server and the quality of the stream. With traditional CDN technologies, if quality is a fixed parameter, this relationship creates a floor for the cost of goods sold that cannot be overcome regardless of economies of scale.

This is how Octoshape technologies usher in a new paradigm of quality, scale, and economics for TV-quality video delivery over the Internet. The technology enables the use of cloud aggregation techniques, and multicast distribution strategies not previously achievable with traditional technologies. The resulting impact takes quality and scale up to a level unreachable by any other technology, and cost of goods sold below a level than any other technology can technically reach.

This disruptive paradigm will help usher in the next generation of TV services by enabling a new frontier of business models and consumer choice.

For more information, visit www.octoshape.com

multicast technical overview

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octoshapes technology

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multicast technologies

multicast reborn

simulated multicast

mbps stream of data

constantquality video

constant quality octoshape