It is an understatement to say that video streaming has become fundamental to our digital lives, with unprecedented growth continuing through 2024. High-quality video streaming is now deeply integrated into virtually all of our day-to-day activities, such as:

• Games with live streaming video content for concurrent users and interactive streaming experiences
• Platforms that stream high-quality video on-demand (VOD) for entertainment and education
• Apps that enable live online video chats, meetings, and virtual events
• News outlets, sports and live events broadcasters presenting live content across multiple platforms
• Live video Q&A and interactive sessions powered by modern streaming protocols like HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and WebRTC

This boom in live streaming video has been enabled by advanced content delivery networks (CDN) and specialized CDN providers. This technology allows high-quality video streams to be delivered to users across the globe with minimal latency and in real-time, supporting everything from 4K entertainment to live sports broadcasts.

What is a Video CDN?

A Video Content Delivery Network (Video CDN) is a specialized network of servers and data centers distributed across the globe, purpose-built for delivering high-quality video content with minimal latency for a seamless streaming experience. A Video CDN brings video content closer to the end users through strategically located data centers called Points of Presence (PoPs), which is especially crucial for delivering buffer-free HD and 4K video streams.

These PoPs act as local video distribution hubs, storing cached copies of popular video content and intelligently routing streaming traffic to prevent origin server overload. This specialized infrastructure ensures that whether viewers are watching live events, on-demand content, or participating in video conferences, they experience consistent, high-quality playback regardless of their geographical location.

The Different Types of CDNs for Live Streaming

The type of CDNs you use can vary depending on the specific services they specialize in. In general, CDNs can be peer-to-peer (P2P) or Private CDNs.

Peer-to-peer or P2P network CDNs

P2P network CDNs involve individual systems that have been opened up to allow a server to download files from. The server that enables it is called a tracker, although it can be a small network of servers as well. Think of a common file sharing platform like BitTorrent where a user looks for specific files to download. Instead of downloading it from a single server, the tracker will search for multiple computers that contain the same file and download different parts of the file from each system. This way, P2P CDNs are very decentralized in their nature but there can be security risks associated with this type of model.

Private or Peering Model CDNs

The private or peering type of CDNs are those where a company owns the network and maintains the servers across their area of coverage. Instead of relying on a decentralized model, peering/private CDNs control their servers that house the content of a website. When visitors land on the website, the files will be downloaded from the server that is physically closest to them.

Another way to categorize CDNs is based on whether they are push or original pull.

Push CDNs

These are CDNs where the user, or the primary server, pushes the content to the CDN. It essentially works like a secondary server with the user uploading content directly to the CDN. Users can specify what content to upload and when they are to be updated or expired. This type of CDN is useful when you want to control traffic and how it is used since uploads need to happen only when there is a change.

Origin Pull CDNs

In origin pull CDNs, the user does not push the files to the CDN but instead the reverse happens. The CDN pulls the content from the origin server where it is saved by the owner, before delivering it to the end user. Compared to push CDNs, origin pull CDNs can be slower and less flexible as there can be some redundancy in the traffic, especially when files are re-queried before changes are made. The benefit of using origin pull CDNs is that they are easier to set up and minimize storage space.

An Introduction to Live Streaming

Live streaming is the process by which data in the form of high-quality video, audio, and other media is transmitted from creators to users across the internet in real-time as and when it is created. Instead of downloading a large video file before playing it, live streaming lets users download the file a little bit at a time from a distance and play it back in real-time.

The process begins when continuous frame data is captured by cameras, which is then compressed through an encoder and packaged for transmission. The video stream is typically processed to support multiple formats and qualities – including different resolutions for various screen sizes and adaptive bitrates to accommodate different network conditions.

Essentially, live streaming is the technology that allows you to create, share, and watch online videos in real-time. It can be done over the internet with connected devices like a laptop, phone, tablet, or a website or app which allows live streaming. Think of popular consumer apps and features like Instagram Live, Facebook Live, Twitch, and Tik Tok which lets you view online video content created by users as they are broadcasting live. Media files such as YouTube videos and vlogs are also technically streamed but not live streamed as the broadcast need not occur in real-time.

It is not just publicly viewable content that live video streaming is used for. They can also be set to private and accessible only to select users, like in the case of video conferencing tools like Zoom or Teams.

The rise of live streaming technologies has transformed the media and entertainment industry. From professional sports to news media, social media platforms and apps to video games, nearly every form of media and entertainment today involves some aspect of live video streaming.

How Does a Video CDN Work?

Live streaming works by sending content across the internet in real-time without recording entire files and storing them. If we look at high-quality video streaming, there are five steps involved between the creation by the creator and the consumption of the high-quality content by the end user.

Step 1: Video capture

First, the content creator captures the raw data or visual information using a camera. The data is represented in binary 1s and 0s in the device.

Step 2: Segmentation

This is where the video file is broken down into smaller parts of a few seconds in length. As it is, video files are much larger in size and even downloading entire files takes a long time. Breaking them down into segments helps in streaming the entire video bit by bit.

Step 3: Compression and encoding

Each of the segments is compressed and encoded. Compressing removes redundant visual information such as a background that does not change in the video. This makes it easy to render just the moving frames in the video before streaming. Encoding is a process that is necessary to convert the data into a format that is compatible with the variety of devices that the end user consumes the content on. For example, H.264, HEVC, VP9, and AV1 are some of the popular formats that videos are encoded into.

Step 4: Content Distribution and CDN Caching

Next, the segmented, compressed, and encoded video is distributed to end users. When the end user accesses a website or plays a video, their device (client) sends a request to the origin server to retrieve these files. Now if the users are located in close proximity to the server, or within a nearby region, this should not be a problem, and the video files are streamed without much of an issue.

In fact, if your viewership is small and they are not widely distributed, the single server can stream to all your users. There is no need to introduce more elements into your streaming workflow.

But when the users are dispersed across a larger geographical area, in some cases across different countries, the round-trip-time for the server to deliver the content can be longer, resulting in delays or latency. This results in a below-par user experience and one that is inconsistent across all the video’s consumers.

Using a CDN solves this problem by caching the content in its distributed network of streaming servers. The CDN server closest to a particular end user will take care of delivering the content to that user.

• Step 5: Decoding and playback

  Once the video data reaches the users, their devices will decode and decompress the video segment by segment into the binary raw data. And with a video player, the user is able to see the visual information and play the video.

Why Use a Video CDN for Live Streaming

CDNs help improve the quality of the live streaming by distributing the content to the streaming servers which are closer to the end user. Specifically, CDN providers make live video streaming better in the following ways.

• They ensure sufficient bandwidth for high traffic periods

  CDNs help avoid the origin servers from getting overwhelmed if requests exceed their bandwidth limit. If a live stream suddenly sees a rapid spike in viewership, and they all request content from a single origin server, it can create a “choke point” and result in server downtime. With CDNs, the server can be protected from these scenarios, and the responsibility of delivering content can be dispersed across the network of streaming servers.

• They reduce latency and round-trip time

  By caching content in the CDN servers closer to end users, CDNs reduce the need for live stream requests to go all the way to the origin server and the content to travel all the way back. This cuts down the round-trip time or RTT and importantly, minimizes latency and buffering to keep the stream real-time.

• They help in live streaming to a global audience

  Since the distribution is done through edge servers located across the world in a content distribution network, CDNs provide scalability in live streaming globally. And not just that, irrespective of where they are located, the viewing experience is the same and the latency and buffering are minimized through CDN servers closest to the end user.

• They reduce the workload on origin servers

  CDNs help offload much of the workload from the origin servers to the network. Since it takes a lot of computing power for a single server to respond to requests, and even more so for video live streaming, CDNs essentially protect the origin servers from overload and keep it operational. The same approach helps protect the servers from distributed denial of service or DDoS attacks.

Businesses which rely on delivering high quality video streaming services to a globally distributed user base will benefit massively from live streaming CDNs. Look to partner with CDN providers who provide video streaming functionality, both live and on-demand, and advanced transcoding processes to enable adaptive bitrates. Some providers also allow you to build your own tools and features using an API.

Key Features to Look for in a Video CDN

When selecting a Video CDN for live streaming, there are several critical features that can significantly impact your streaming performance. Scalability should be a primary consideration, as your CDN must be able to handle sudden viewership spikes and growing audience demands without compromising stream quality. The CDN’s global server distribution directly affects its ability to scale effectively across different regions.

Latency reduction capabilities are equally crucial, with the CDN’s ability to minimize buffering and deliver real-time streaming through strategically placed PoPs being essential for user engagement. Reliability is another key factor – look for CDNs that offer redundant systems, robust failover mechanisms, and consistently high uptime rates to ensure uninterrupted streaming experiences. The best Video CDNs combine these features with advanced monitoring tools and adaptive bitrate streaming to maintain optimal performance across varying network conditions.

CDNetworks’ World-Leading Media Delivery and Media Acceleration VoD Solutions

Our Media Delivery solution is a leading global video delivery platform powered by one of the world’s largest Content Delivery Networks. With over 2,800 CDN PoPs, 400 edge-computing PoPs, 200,000 servers, and petabyte-level storage capacity (1000 PB), our solution delivers high-quality video content to viewers worldwide with exceptional performance and reliability.

Our Media Delivery platform stands out with its comprehensive suite of features designed for modern video delivery needs. The solution ensures seamless content availability through intelligent scheduling and customized caching while providing robust security features including encryption and anti-hotlinking capabilities. What truly differentiates our platform is its ability to support multiple codecs and protocols, reducing content size while maintaining quality for wide audience reach. The platform integrates advanced content processing features such as transcoding, transmuxing, and video editing, all while maintaining optimal delivery performance through our global edge network. Our cloud-based architecture eliminates the need for complex hardware infrastructure while providing real-time insights into stream quality and viewer distribution through an intuitive console portal.