Netflix Open Connect Network

Netflix Open Connect Network
PTT Forum December 2012 Flavio Amaral (South America Network Strategy)
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Overview
§  Introduction to Netflix
§  Netflix in Brazil
§  Peering and Plans for 2013
§  Open Connect, the Netflix Content Delivery Network
§  Embedded ISP Caches (Open Connect Appliances)
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Introduction to Netflix
§  Internet television
§  Subscription service (R$14,99/mês)
§  A catalog of movie and television shows
§  Personalized recommendations
§  Support for wide variety of platforms, including computer
based players, game consoles, mobile, set top boxes
and smart televisions
§  HTTP adaptive bitrate video delivery with custom
intelligent client software
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Netflix in Brazil
§  Service Launched in September 2011
§  Streaming millions of hours of entertainment each week
§  Also available across the rest of the Americas and parts
of Europe
§  Bitrate limits on some ISPs to avoid low usage based
billing caps
Peering
§  Present at PTT-BR IX in Sao Paulo
§  First PoP activated in August 2012
§  Second PoP being activated this month.
§  More than 20 Gbps of peak traffic and growing
§  Also serving content via IPv6, more than 10 Mbps
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ISP Time Weighted Bit Rate for Netflix
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ISP Time Weighted Bit Rate for Netflix
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
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Netflix in Brazil 2013
§  Bring content closer to the users
§  Go outside of Sao Paulo
§  Peering at other PTT IXs
§  Embedded ISP Caches
The Netflix Open Connect Appliance (OCA)
§  Developed in response to ISP requests to help scale Netflix
traffic efficiently
§  Reduces ISP cost by serving Netflix traffic from the local ISP
datacenter, rather than upstream network interconnects
§  Speeds up internet access for consumers to all third-party
internet sites, because Netflix traffic is no longer a source of
middle-mile or backbone congestion
§  Netflix bears the capital and maintenance costs, not ISP
§  ISP provides space, power and a network port
§  An OCA is a component of the Netflix CDN(vs a transparent
cache)
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Why Deploy a Netflix OCA?
§  Netflix data is a significant percentage of ISP traffic in the
markets we serve
§  Serve 90% of Netflix traffic from the local ISP datacenter
§  Remaining traffic can be served by upstream OCA’s, peering
§  Saves on transit, transport and other upstream scaling costs
§  Provided free of charge to participating ISPs
§  ISPs with >= 3 Gbps of Netflix traffic
§  ISP provides rack space, power, 10 Gbps optical port(s)
OCA Operation
§  Used exclusively for Netflix content
§  Completely integrated with the Netflix content delivery system
§  Greater effectiveness than transparent or proxy caches (90% with
Netflix OCA, versus 20-50% with other caches)
§  Efficient content fill mechanisms
§  Outside peak times (ISP selected time and BW per OCA)
§  OCA offline during fill, staggered fill recommended.
§  Fill can source from neighboring, peer or transit OCA’s
§  ~5TB fill per day (i.e ~4Gb/s for ~2.5 hrs)
§  OCA must be reachable by end users (port 80)
OCA Hardware
•  Space optimized: 4U highdensity storage
•  Power optimized for low power/
cooling requirements (≅500W)
•  Redundant 10GE optical
network interfaces
•  Redundant power supplies (AC
or DC)
•  Software:
• 
• 
• 
FreBSD 9.0
NGINX HTTP server
BIRD BGP
•  Detailed specification on our
project website
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OCA Provisioning
§  Preconfigured: ISP unpacks and racks unit, plugs in
power and network
§  OCA are shipped with pre-loaded content, immediately
deliver network offload
§  The appliance you receive is the same field- proven
appliance Netflix uses in its own data centers and
peering locations.
Directing Clients to OCAs
Netflix Control Servers
Broadband ISP
Netflix OCA
3. Client connects to local OCA
4. Local OCA delivers video stream
•  User routing is done by
Netflix control servers,
not dependent on client
DNS configuration
•  Request is routed to the
nearest available OCA
•  Working sets of popular
content deliver up to 90%
network offload
Network Positioning
§  OCA’s are installed close to aggregations of end users
§  Netflix works with ISPs to determine proper location
and user-to-OCA mapping
§  ISP Controls Traffic Flow
§  End-user netblocks are associated with OCA via BGP advertisement
§  OCA’s only serve content to netblocks provided by ISP
§  ISPs choose peak throughput each OCA is allowed to generate
Scaling/Redundancy
§  Typical configuration includes N+1 redundancy
§  Netflix works with ISP capacity planning to ensure
desired upstream network savings are achieved
§  Peering and Neighbor failover
§  IX peering recommended for fill, overflow and failover
§  Open Connect System designed as carrier class – ISP’s
do not need to keep significant headroom on transit links
to handle OCA failure.
§  Multiple OCAs can store some similar (popular) and
some different content to increase offload %
OCA Maintenance and monitoring
§  Monitored and supported by Netflix’s 24x7 NOC
§  Engineered to be highly resilient
§  Appliance-style software management: OS and
applications are firmware, updated automatically
§  No field service required
OCA DRM
§  Worry-free for all types of networks
§  The content stored is encrypted with industry-standard
Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology
§  Obtaining keys to unlock the DRM content requires realtime interaction with our control servers
§  Only authorized subscription accounts can authenticate
to the control servers to obtain license keys to play
content
§  Our DRM systems have been reviewed and approved by
our content licensors
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Not only movies…
§  Technology
§  Technical blog: http://techblog.netflix.com/
§  Eureka
§  Hystrix
§  Edda
§  Asgard
§  Chaos Monkey
§  Open Connect details: https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect
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Questions?
Contact:
famaral@netflix.com
Additional information, including
peering and caching information:
http://openconnect.netflix.com/