PeerApp Caches 4K Video at CableLabs Winter Conference

With OTT providers and MVPDs looking to launch 4K video, content caching firms like PeerApp are working with network management companies such as Sandvine to maximize delivery quality. Featuring 4K content delivery, PeerApp demonstrated its implementation of the Content Service Extension (CSE) architecture in cooperation with intelligent broadband solutions provider Sandvine and global content delivery provider Limelight Networks, at the CableLabs Winter Conference.

PeerApp showcased managed delivery of 4K video content from Limelight’s global CDN footprint into the home, triggering operator caching and network quality of service extension services in a trusted and controlled environment. The operator-side implementation of the CSE service architecture includes PeerApp’s UltraBand cache and CSE controller platforms as well as Sandvine’s Service Delivery Engine (SDE).

“With emerging standards like 4K video, operators experience consumers demanding ever greater amounts of high quality content,” said Peter Coppola, Vice President of Product and Solutions Marketing at Limelight. “This demonstration of CSE shows that the technology is here today to enable CDNs and network operators to cooperate in the delivery of premium and other high value content.” PeerApp, Limelight Networks and EdgeCast Networks jointly formed the open Content Service Extension initiative last year to enable an open-standards environment through which broadband operators can work collaboratively with Internet content providers and web applications to maximize quality of experience.

The CSE architecture aims to allow CDNs and content service providers to extend their business logic and delivery footprint into operator networks, through invocation of network functions and capabilities deployed and controlled by the operator. “Sandvine and PeerApp have jointly driven operator caching to improve subscribers’ quality of experience at more than 40 communications service providers globally,” said Don Bowman, CTO, Sandvine.

“With this demonstration, we’ve shown that the possibility for establishing a very different content delivery model exists – one that does not rely on paid peering agreements  like those that we have seen recently,” said David Sokolic, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at PeerApp. “In order for OTT video services to scale to the level of traditional cable and satellite video distribution methods, while at the same time providing the quality and reliability that consumers expect, the content needs to reside at the edge of the operator’s network. Unlike paid peering agreements, CSE enables the content to be delivered from within the operator’s local access network. This gives the operator greater visibility and control over the traffic and also enables an end-to-end guarantee of quality.”