Network and CDN jointly create a dual-acceleration intelligent network

With the development of network technology, network operators can provide users with higher and higher bandwidth, but the revenue has not increased accordingly, and the ARPU value of broadband users has been declining. Telecom operators have been exploring differentiated operations and providing differentiated services to users to increase business revenue, but the results are not obvious.

　　Since 2011, operators have focused on the research of intelligent pipelines, hoping to provide better services to users, increase business revenue, and enhance the position of network operators in the industry chain through effective improvement and integration of the network. Operators have proposed to be the leaders of intelligent pipelines, making users identifiable, services distinguishable, traffic controllable, and networks manageable. On this basis, they have extended to ensure service quality and improve user experience.

　　User service experience is difficult to guarantee

　　The main needs of users can be described as: when watching videos, they need high-definition images and smooth playback; when downloading files, they hope for fast download speeds. However, the current problems are: in many cases, when users watch online videos, they need to pre-buffer for a period of time, and when watching, there are often freezes and mosaics; even the video page will prompt: "The current network status is not good, please choose standard definition mode", "The current network status is not good, it is recommended to buffer for a period of time before watching", etc.; when downloading files, there is a low download rate, or even no seeds, and the download link is abnormally interrupted.

　　To solve the above problems, operators and Internet content providers each have their own solutions.

　　Telecom operators use the BoD solution to provide users with higher bandwidth and quality assurance. However, this solution has the following problems: limited network layer assurance capabilities and lack of application layer assurance. Simply increasing network speed cannot solve users' problems.

　　The solution adopted by Internet content providers is to deploy or rent CDN (Content Distribution Network) services to accelerate content distribution. However, this solution has the following problems: it cannot break through the limitation of network bandwidth and cannot provide higher speed; it is limited by network quality and cannot guarantee user experience; the incoordination between CDN acceleration and network will also cause network congestion, affecting network performance and stability. At the same time, packet loss caused by congestion will inevitably affect service quality. It can be seen that relying solely on CDN acceleration cannot solve user problems.

　　Based on the user experience needs, it is found that there are two main factors that affect user experience: one is the network quality, and the other is the quality of application services provided. If both can be guaranteed, the user's business experience can be fundamentally guaranteed.

　　Therefore, we hope to coordinate the network layer guarantee with the application layer guarantee to achieve specific guarantee for specific content requested by specific users during specific time periods. Users do not need to go to a specific page to apply for network speed-up or application guarantee. They only need to click on the required content on the application interface they use to get the joint guarantee of application and network. This is specifically implemented transparently to users.

　　Application and network linkage implementation plan

　　To achieve joint acceleration of applications and networks, three issues need to be addressed.

　　Network layer acceleration and protection

　　Since the network above BRAS/SR is packet statistical multiplexing and does not have user-level management and control, it is difficult to control policies and ensure quality based on users. Therefore, it is recommended to move the content distribution node down to BRAS/SR to effectively avoid congestion points in the network; network quality assurance in the network at and below the BRAS/SR user-side port can be achieved by using BoD.

　　Acceleration and protection of the application layer

　　The acceleration and protection of the application layer can borrow the current CDN application acceleration and protection methods, and can also be combined with P2P+CDN or P2SP+CDN methods.

　　Collaboration between the network layer and the application layer

　　On the basis of network layer acceleration and guarantee and application acceleration and guarantee, in order to realize the guarantee of specific application content requested by specific users in a specific period of time, the two need to be coordinated. BRAS/SR equipment integrates CDN functions, provides dedicated service boards to provide CDN services for users, establishes and maintains user service state machines, and can effectively achieve coordination and linkage with the user state machine at the network layer (see figure).

　　After a user clicks on a specific, high-level application on the application page, the network layer bandwidth can be automatically increased during the use of the application content; at the same time, the application content is accelerated and guaranteed. The acceleration and guarantee method can adopt the P2SP method, and multiple CDN nodes transmit to the user at the same time. Other users who are using the application content can also transmit to the user. Users also get the joint acceleration and guarantee of the application and the network, and the experience is improved.

　　Four major application values ​​of the joint solution

　　The application value of this solution can be analyzed from four perspectives: users, telecom operators, Internet content providers, and equipment and solution providers.

　　From the user's perspective, the clarity and smoothness of online video viewing are improved, and ultra-high-speed large file downloads can be achieved. According to existing equipment and network conditions, a download rate of 1Gbit/s can be provided in theory, which is dozens of times higher than the existing download rate.

　　From the perspective of telecom operators, the joint acceleration guarantee of applications and networks makes the network and applications more closely integrated, allowing telecom operators to give full play to their network advantages and gain greater advantages in market competition. At the same time, telecom operators can use the advantages of the combination of applications and networks to develop more value-added services, such as providing faster download services, high-definition video services, and more flexible packages, thereby promoting business growth.

　　From the perspective of Internet content providers, since telecom operators provide a full set of solutions including network access and CDN services, Internet content providers no longer need to worry about network and content distribution issues, and do not need to consider the construction and maintenance of CDNs, and can focus on content operations.

　　From the perspective of equipment and solution providers, it has brought into play its core technology and solved the most urgent needs of users and telecom operators. At the same time, it has also enabled telecom operators to take a step further in comprehensive business operations and information service provision, expanding the market scale and gaining more market share; thereby driving more investment and construction demand, and equipment and solution providers can obtain more benefits from it.