Cisco Content Delivery System Enables Delivery of Personalized
Digital Video and IPTV Services
CDS Network-Based Intelligence Expands Ability to Offer Choice and
Control -- Transforming Video and IPTV Experience
HONG KONG -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 03, 2006 -- ITU TELECOM WORLD
-- Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO) today expanded the video and IPTV delivery
capabilities of its Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP
NGN) architecture with the introduction of the Cisco Content Delivery
System (CDS). This solution offers both cable and wireline providers
a highly-extensible platform for the delivery of video-on-demand and
time-shifted video services. The Cisco CDS enables carriers to
accelerate the creation and distribution of advanced entertainment,
interactive media and advertising services to subscribers'
televisions, PCs, mobile handsets, portable media players and other
media-capable devices.
The Cisco CDS is the latest addition to the Cisco IP NGN Service
Exchange Framework, a suite of technologies designed to enhance IP
service control and enable content personalization.
"People today are determined to choose not only what they watch, but
also when, how and where they watch it," said Ron Westfall, principal
analyst, broadband infrastructure for Current Analysis. "Video
content delivery systems must be able to quickly and seamlessly
respond to open-ended viewing patterns, as well as address the trend
toward social networking and user-generated content. The scalability
of the Cisco CDS makes it uniquely capable of handling the video
storage, personalization and streaming requirements needed to meet
subscribers' rising expectations."
The Cisco CDS is composed of a network of appliances known as Content
Delivery Engines (CDEs) which implement content storage, ingest,
distribution, personalization and streaming capabilities. Groups of
CDEs form a virtual platform for deployment of a variety of Content
Delivery Applications (CDAs). In various combinations, CDAs enable
service providers to deploy multiple high-value subscriber services
such as targeted ad-insertion in broadcast video and video-on-demand
(VoD); program time-shifting; local programming; "long tail" content;
and public, educational and government channels.
The Cisco CDS offers a network-centric approach to digital video and
IPTV delivery that differs significantly from the monolithic,
centralized, server-based products available to date. The existing
solutions are proprietary, hardware-centric, application-specific
devices that are difficult and expensive to scale, cumbersome to
operate and maintain, and unable to support the growth of video
content and the proliferation of end-user devices.
The Cisco CDS offers the following advantages over existing
solutions:
Industry-leading scalability: Regardless of system size and the
number and mix of CDEs deployed, the Cisco CDS (in centralized,
decentralized or hybrid configurations) operates as a single logical
system with virtually unlimited capacity for ingest, storage and
streaming. By physically separating ingest, storage and streaming
into separate CDEs, each function scales independently of the others.
This makes the Cisco CDS a particularly flexible, efficient and
cost-effective solution for delivering long-tail content,
time-shifted programming, and user-generated content. The solution
takes advantage of a unique hierarchical storage design that enables
the development of large content libraries while simplifying content
storage management. Programming is preserved in a common, shared
storage array that is instantly accessible for streaming anywhere in
the network, while intelligent caching automates delivery of the
content to the network edge in response to viewer demand. As a
result, the most popular content at any point in time is cached
locally on CDEs at the edge of the network. The resulting decrease in
bandwidth demand on the network backbone helps providers lower costs
and improve scalability.
Nonstop service availability: Through resource pooling and load
balancing, the Cisco CDS dynamically allocates storage and streaming
resources across available CDEs based on real-time subscriber demand.
This allows any CDE within an array to instantly assume the identity
and state of another, enabling automatic failover and maintaining a
high-quality viewing experience when a server is unavailable due a
maintenance upgrade or hardware failure.
Network linkages: Unlike traditional VoD systems, the CDS eliminates
the need to pre-position content at every streaming node in the
network. Delivery of any content, from ingest to play-out on the
subscriber's screen, occurs within 300 milliseconds, regardless of
where the content is physically stored within the network. This
imperceptibly low latency -- much lower than any other available
solution -- also enables the first true convergence of live TV with
on-demand content, delivering personalized streams to each subscriber
in the network without disrupting the broadcast timeline.
The Cisco CDS solution has been chosen by Charter Communications and
Time Warner Cable and is in trials with a number of leading wireline
providers around the world.
"Global adoption of digital, high definition and on-demand video
services is accelerating -- giving consumers greater choice and
control while transforming the entertainment experience," said Paul
Bosco, Cisco vice president of cable and video initiatives. "Exciting
new changes are also emerging in advertising, subscriber content and
interactive services. The CDS family extends the Cisco portfolio of
video broadcast and digital media products to power this revolution.
We now offer next generation video and interactive service delivery
platforms, built within our IP-NGN architecture, and complementing
our set-top and other product portfolios to enable the 'Connected
Life.' Our goal is to deliver the products, solutions and support
services which enable the success of our customers in this fast-paced
period of change."
For more information about how Cisco is enabling providers and their
customers to benefit from the shift to "Video 2.0," please visit the
Cisco Website: http://www.cisco.com/go/ipngn7.
About Cisco Systems
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