Massively Distributed CDN

[Elite Override]

Anycast can be used and is used in most big CDN companies.... like CloudFlare. You don't see a South African IP address, you see their normal range of IP's, that IP is then just routed to the closest server to the person requesting it. So the case of whitelisting and IP would only ever have to happen once.

I'd like to preface this by saying I only know the basics of routing.

I'm aware of the following:
1. Anycast and its use in DNS and CDNs
2. You can influence the traffic on the routes you advertise by prepending AS numbers to increase the cost of certain routes.

Based on that (I might be completely in the dark here, let me know if I'm missing something) and the fact that the OP mentioned that they plan to redirect traffic based on the performance of the seeds:
1. Wouldn't it be a chore to keep the cost on every router up to date in real time depending on the load on the seeds? Can this be done automatically on a large scale?
2. BGP takes time to propagate, so in theory a particular seed could be overwhelmed with traffic if updated information doesn't converge in time?

 

[halfmoonforever]

I
Based on that (I might be completely in the dark here, let me know if I'm missing something) and the fact that the OP mentioned that they plan to redirect traffic based on the performance of the seeds:
1. Wouldn't it be a chore to keep the cost on every router up to date in real time depending on the load on the seeds? Can this be done automatically on a large scale?
2. BGP takes time to propagate, so in theory a particular seed could be overwhelmed with traffic if updated information doesn't converge in time?

1) I imagine a server (or servers) in a specific location might report back to a handful of these routers, maybe even just 1 with health stats. Almost like how you do load balancing through a server that runs HAProxy (or whatever you use as a software-based LB)

2) If my assumption on #1 is correct, BGP only needs to know the router's locations, not where the actual seeds are.

But then again, shooting from the hip, so speak under correction

 

[mic_y]

1) I imagine a server (or servers) in a specific location might report back to a handful of these routers, maybe even just 1 with health stats. Almost like how you do load balancing through a server that runs HAProxy (or whatever you use as a software-based LB)

2) If my assumption on #1 is correct, BGP only needs to know the router's locations, not where the actual seeds are.

But then again, shooting from the hip, so speak under correction

Hi Halfmoon,

From my understanding of the system this is pretty much a spot on assessment of what goes on.

The company is busy patenting their algorithms following which I will be able to provide more information on the specifics of the implementation.

 

[Adenoid Hynkel]

@mic_y drop me a pm. Have multiple servers across the globe idling

 

[shadow_man]

I've got a lot of bandwidth / space available in France.

How much are we talking?

 

[mic_y]

Nature of traffic, volume of traffic, nature of app, and how much money?

Nature of traffic: what ever a content provider pays to have delivered via the CDN. This would obviously include images, video, audio etc.

Volume of traffic: would depend on the content being served, number of requests, etc.

How much money: would be a direct correlation to the amount of traffic served.