Scale it with software

While a carrier network is confined by device, phone numbers, and the coverage area, software-driven real time network can enable better content delivery

- RANGANATH JAGANNATH

The public internet as we know it has been evolving and growing exponentially in the past three decades. From the days of dial-up modem connection and small internet cafes in the early ‘90s to the social media-driven mobile networks of the late 2000s, public internet has become a critical part of our daily lives. Despite its significant growth and many innovations, the public Internet still has many limitations today that prevent it from fulfilling the high demands of live audio and video streaming.

The internet has been designed as a best effort system. In short, this means that while the public internet prioritizes connectivity and scalability, there is no guarantee on delivery or quality of service. Public internet is designed with best efforts for good reason. As of January 2019, there were an estimated 1.94 billion websites on the internet, which is eight times more than the number of websites measured in 2008 (Netcraft). Therefore, the top priority of the public internet has been to sustain the hypergrowth rate and to ensure that each and every website on the internet is both searchable and accessible. As a result, user experience, reliability, and latency – all of which are key quality elements for live audio and video streaming – are not priorities of the public internet.

The Software Defined Real Time Network (SD-RTN) was built with the philosophy that someday advancement in technology would allow us to deliver good or better experience quality as traditional carrier networks. The advantage of SD-RTN versus a traditional carrier network is that it is not confined by device, phone numbers, or a telecommunication provider’s coverage area.

SD-RTN and CDN