The need for scalable and distributable on-demand TV architectures is rapidly increasing. Traditional video-on-demand (VoD) solutions utilizing general-purpose hardware are being challenged by new technology developed especially for VoD and IPTV (Internet Protocol television).
Edgeware's revolutionary approach to server design incorporates three unique technologies -- content storage in flash memory instead of hard disks, streaming through custom hardware instead of software running on general purpose devices, and distributed content propagation pulling popular content into edge servers based on local decisions.
Edgeware VoD technology overview
Unlike traditional servers on the market, Edgeware's Video on Demand server, the Orbit 2x has been designed and developed to provide sustained bandwidth of up to 20 Gbps for output streaming which is configurable down to 2 Gbps and has input content uploading capabilities of up to 1.6 Gbps with no streaming/ingest performance conflict.
This performance is achieved through the intelligent separation of critical and non-critical functions. Performance critical operations are implemented in custom hardware, while control and other non-critical functions are implemented on top of a standard Linux system for easy adaptation to different environments.
Although operators are unlikely to require each server to have a bandwidth of 20 Gbps in current deployments, it allows for future scalability. The large bandwidth available creates huge streaming capacity and one server can facilitate up to 2,500 HDTV streams at 8.0 Mbps, up to 5,400 SDTV streams at 3.7 Mbps and has a maximum of 16,384 fully concurrent SDTV streams at 1.2 Mbps.
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Figure 1: Basic architecture of the Orbit 2x server
For video content storage, the server technology is able to support between 128 GB and 3 TB of NAND flash. This means that 1850 hours of video content can be stored at 3.7 Mbps for SDTV and 850 hours of video content can be stored at 8.0 Mbps for HDTV. These numbers are current for 2008 -- this maximum configuration doubles annually.
The available storage capability is also used extremely efficiently as Edgeware's VoD technology operates using a single copy of each asset rather than the multiple copies required to support many legacy VoD solutions. As a result the server has the ability to ingest content and turn it around to an outbound stream almost instantaneously as there is no need to generate extra trick play files.
The Orbit 2x server is also able to deliver the full 20 Gbps/16,384 video streams out of a single copy, as there is no need for load balancing between performance limited hard disks with multiple copies of popular content to allow enough parallel streams.
Next: Distributable and scalable VoD
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