On the Benefits of Joint Optimization of Reconfigurable CDN-ISP Infrastructure

Abstract

ISP networks have become a critical infrastructure in our society. Traffic in these networks is growing and is increasingly dominated by a small number of large CDNs connecting at multiple locations. Simultaneously, the networks are becoming more flexible, in terms of routing, CDN user mapping, and also regarding the IP topology: emerging optical technologies allow to flexibly reconfigure the network.This paper studies the potential gains of these reconfiguration flexibilities. The idea is to make CDN-ISP infrastructure demandaware, that is, to re-optimize it towards the changing end-user demands over time. We present an optimization framework and conduct an extensive evaluation using data from a large European ISP. We find that such a reconfigurable infrastructure has indeed a high potential: by leveraging spatial and diurnal traffic patterns, the efficiency of ISP networks and CDNs is improved significantly. Specifically, the required backbone capacity is reduced by 15% while reducing path lengths by 30%, on average and during the critical peak hour. Moreover, such infrastructures can leverage re-optimizations during specific events, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and under link failures. We optimistically assume a cooperative environment of ISPs and CDNs, and we conclude by discussing trends that foster the identified benefits in practice.

Analysis of network function sharing in Content Delivery Network‐as‐a‐service slicing scenarios

“…Furthermore, taking profit of potential network reconfiguration (e.g., at optical network layer), joint optimization of CDN, and service provider resources could be achieved. 25 Finally, another model is given by the deployment of caches from OTTs (e.g., Netflix and Akamai) on ISP networks through bilateral agreements among the parties. As these services are quite popular, the advantage of doing so is the reduction of traffic internal to the network.…”

“…Recent work in Zhang et al 22 proposes a further integration of the CDN and the ISP network by leveraging BGP‐LS 23 for advertising topological information and ALTO server 24 for automatically providing the CDN with up‐to‐date network and cost maps. Furthermore, taking profit of potential network reconfiguration (e.g., at optical network layer), joint optimization of CDN, and service provider resources could be achieved 25 …”

WebRTC over 5G: A Study of Remote Collaboration QoS in Mobile Environment

“…Web conferencing and other services accounted for 11% of the internet traffic in 2017, and this number was expected to almost double by 2022 [2]. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the growth rate of IP video traffic [3]. However, remote applications continue to face challenges, particularly in remote collaboration activities requiring video and audio synchronization between remote locations.…”

The Case for Stochastic Online Segment Routing under Demand Uncertainty

“…This paper considers the segment routing problem from a fundamental algorithmic perspective. In particular, we are interested in the question of how segment routing can be optimized under demand uncertainty, a significant practical concern: in many practical deployments, traffic demands change over time and are not always perfectly predictable, e.g., due to optimizations by content providers [6], [7]. The segment routing mechanism hence cannot be tailored toward a given scenario but should also account for variability.…”