Step 7. Content Delivery Network: What is CDN and how does CDN work?

Read More of Our 9-Part Series

1. How to Start Your Own IPTV Business
2. IPTV Middleware
3. ​Setrix​ ​Media​ ​Player
4. ​Applications​ ​for​ ​Smart​ ​TV
5. ​Tablet​ ​and​ ​Phone​ ​Applications
6. Set​ ​Top​ ​Box (STB)
7. (step 7: this article)
8. Custom​ ​Interface
9. ​Support​ ​and​ ​Launch

Table of Contents

• Content Delivery Network: What is CDN and how does CDN work?
  • What is CDN?
  • How CDN works?
  • Key CDN Challenges
  • The purpose of CDN
  • Setplex CDN solution

Content Delivery Network: What is CDN and how does CDN work?

What is CDN:

A Content Delivery Network (abbr. CDN) is the way content is delivered to the end user. The ability to deliver requested content will require the development of a content distribution network.

How CDN works:

When an internet browser requests a resource, the initial step is the DNS request. The browser then provides the domain name and waits to receive an IP address in return. With the IP address, the browser can contact the server directly. A domain name can have a single IP address; or alternatively in the case of larger applications, the domain name can have multiple IP addresses. Physicality is what determines how quickly one system can contact another over physical connections, therefore accessing a server in China from a PC in the US will take more time than trying to access a U.S. server from inside the country.

To improve the experience for the user as well as to lower the transmission costs by a substantial amount; large corporations usually set up content delivery servers with copies of data in specific and strategically planned geographic locations all across the globe. The server closest to the website responds to the request by the user. The content delivery network’s purpose is to copy the pages of the website to a network of CDN servers that are spread over a wide range of different locations, caching the contents of the page. When the user asks for a webpage that is part of a content delivery network, the content delivery network will direct the request from the original website’s server to the nearest server in the CDN and then deliver the cached content. CDN also does the job of communicating with the original server to deliver any content that has not been formerly cached. The whole process of echoing throughout CDN is almost transparent to the user.

Key CDN Challenges

In the absence of a CDN, the servers have to respond to each and every single end-user request. This leads to a fair amount of traffic to the original website and the subsequent load, hence increasing the chances for original’s failure if the traffic is too high or if the load continues to be persistent. By immediately responding to the user’s request, the content delivery network offloads traffic from the CDN servers and helps improve the overall web experience, hence putting the end users and the content provider at an advantage. As more and more businesses choose to go online, and the world begins to shop on the Internet, content providers face a progressively increasing range of challenges such as the delivery of content, device detection, and making sure to secure data and the presence of their users.

The purpose of CDN

CDN has hence been forming the backbone of the virtual world by delivering online content for all kinds of businesses. Bottom line is, if you’ve ever done anything online, you will have made use of and benefited from a CDN.

Setplex CDN solution

Setplex has a presence in 130 countries, helping IPTV/OTT providers to deliver content to audiences anywhere in the world. Setplex collaborates with top CDN providers, such as Verizon, AT&T, Level(3), Century Link, and Akamai CDN solutions. The OTT/IPTV providers can stream high-quality content across all operating systems and devices with fast data transfer rates.

For more information, visit
Setplex CDN

Read More of Our 9-Part Series

1. How to Start Your Own IPTV Business
2. IPTV Middleware
3. ​Setrix​ ​Media​ ​Player
4. ​Applications​ ​for​ ​Smart​ ​TV
5. ​Tablet​ ​and​ ​Phone​ ​Applications
6. Set​ ​Top​ ​Box (STB)
7. (step 7: this article)
8. Custom​ ​Interface
9. ​Support​ ​and​ ​Launch

Interested in our IPTV and OTT services? Learn more about NoraGO and Setplex