Open Connect is a

content distribution network A content delivery network (CDN) or content distribution network is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance ("speed") by distributing the service spat ...

specifically developed by

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

to deliver its TV shows and movies to avoid traffic and fees. Netflix provides physical appliances to internet service providers that allow them to avoid traffic during peak hours of streaming or sustain the anticipated ones. By shipping copies of content to these appliances ahead of time, the devices can store duplicates of titles, thereby reducing the network burden. Also, Netflix places its servers in locations with the highest number of subscribers and forms partnerships with

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...

networks or IXPs. Furthermore, Netflix adapts its content to the quality of the network. This is achieved by sending three copies of each title, each at a different quality level, to its servers. For example, if a user's ISP is overwhelmed or the Internet connection is poor, the system can select a lower-

bitrate In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (bitrate or as a variable ''R'') is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. The bit rate is expressed in the unit bit per second (symbol: bit/s), often in conjunction ...

version of the title.

History

Netflix launched ''Open Connect'' in 2012. Since then, Netflix has spent over $1 billion to develop and distribute more than 8,000 Open Connect Appliances (OCA). The service started working on the free-of-charge distribution of OCAs in cooperation with ISPs. So far, more than 1,000 ISPs have acquired and installed OCAs, which has allowed them to save $1.25 billion by 2021.''Netflix’s Open Connect program and codec optimisation helped ISPs save over USD1 billion globally in 2021''. Analysys Mason. (2022-07-14). Retrieved 2023-04-24. https://www.analysysmason.com/contentassets/ef8295594cc54285bf554b05daa06431/modelling-the-impact-of-netflix-traffic-and-open-connect-on-isp-traffic-dependent-costs---2022-07-14.pdf In the case of an OCA that is hosted at an IXP, Netflix maintains ownership of the OCA and is responsible for covering its own expenses such as power consumption, colocation fees, cross-connect fees, and other related costs. Netflix has installed OCAs in over 52 IXPs around the world, enabling a connection with any

Deployment

* IX deployment Netflix deploys OCAs within IXPs located in major Netflix markets around the world. These OCAs are interconnected with ISPs present at the same location through free public or private

peering In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the "down-stream" users of each network. Peering is settlement-free, also known as "bill-a ...

. * Embedded deployment OCAs are directly installed within ISP networks. While Netflix supplies the server hardware at no cost, ISPs are responsible for providing space, power, and connectivity.

Requirements

Three primary factors that determine the number of appliances that need to be deployed are: # The

network architecture Network architecture is the design of a computer network. It is a framework for the specification of a network's physical components and their functional organization and configuration, its operational principles and procedures, as well as commun ...

requirements # The maximum amount of Netflix traffic to be delivered from a particular site # The availability and

failover Failover is switching to a redundant or standby computer server, system, hardware component or network upon the failure or abnormal termination of the previously active application, server, system, hardware component, or network in a computer ...

options that can be implemented at that site.

Hardware

Open Connect is a combination of local servers, referred to as OCAs, and additional infrastructure. Netflix has developed storage appliances that are used to store the content in many IX locations globally and are embedded at larger ISP partner locations. The storage holds up to 350 TB, therefore, if something from storage becomes popular, Netflix will move that title onto the other server called flash server which serves large traffic.

Software

These are used software for designing Open Connect Appliance Software: *

Operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

–

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...

Web server A web server is computer software and underlying Computer hardware, hardware that accepts requests via Hypertext Transfer Protocol, HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS. A user agent, co ...

–

NGINX (pronounced "engine x" , stylized as NGINX or nginx) is a web server that can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. The software was created by Russian developer Igor Sysoev and publicly released in 20 ...

* Routing Intelligence Proxy –

BIRD internet routing daemon BIRD (recursive acronym for ''BIRD Internet Routing Daemon'') is an open-source software, open-source implementation for routing Internet Protocol packets on Unix-like operating systems. It was developed as a school project at the Faculty of Mat ...

* IP support –

IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the first version of the Internet Protocol (IP) as a standalone specification. It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks. ...

and

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...

* Other software handle content management and transmits information regarding the system's health and other statistics to the Open Connect supporting services at Netflix.Barua, H. (2019-09-29). ''Managing global CDN operations at Netflix''. InfoQ. Retrieved 2023-04-24. https://www.infoq.com/news/2019/09/global-cdn-netflix/

Benefits

* Open Connect permits ISPs to circumvent the expenses associated with transit charge and costly international backhaul capacity by delivering the traffic directly to the ISP instead of through a transit link. * If an ISP has multiple OCAs in place, it is possible to transmit the traffic to the consumer from a server nearby, which reduces costs for the core network capacity. * Open Connect assists wideband networks in retaining their customers by preventing slow speed and instability. Moreover, if one element fails, it is possible to redirect the traffic to other servers, which minimizes the risk of downtime. * Netflix invests in delivery infrastructure, such as OCAs, as well as compression technology, to optimize the delivery of its content and support the growing global demand for video content and broadband internet access. * The OCAs report their health values and receive their configurations from the Open Connect supporting services (if it is reachable from the

Network Operations Center A network operations center (NOC, pronounced like the word ''knock''), also known as a "network management center", is one or more locations from which network monitoring and control, or network management, is exercised over a computer, teleco ...

). Netflix also automatically incorporates feedback on the health information into its content routing decisions.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://openconnect.netflix.com/ Netflix Content delivery networks Streaming media systems