Siminn, Broadpeak and Telefónica demonstrate the potential of the concept of "TV Roaming"

Together they are Phone, the largest telecommunications operator in Iceland, Telefónica It is one of the first companies to demonstrate the viability and interest of applying the concept of “roaming TV” to the distribution of video services interconnecting on content distribution networks (CDN) by means of the Open Caching Standard defined by streaming video Technology Alliance (SVTA).

The desire to offer the best qoe to users of their television services and, at the same time, minimize their impact has led most operators to deploy their Pripping CDN (Operator CDN) In their networks.

However, this approach has Two weak points that greatly limit their potential. On the one hand, when the subscribers to the television service of the operator connect to it from outside its network, the CDNs of the operator cease to be the best alternative to guarantee the best quality and the greatest efficiency, since they are no longer the closest to the user. The frequency of this situation depends on the rights over video contents (for example, if they are limited to certain countries, cities ...) and on the regulations, as in the EU, where the regulations guarantee users access to their video services from any EU country.

On the other hand, they were not designed to Manage any video traffic Distributed through the operator's network, but, in general, only traffic related to the operator's own video services, leaving the most of the traffic out (for example, Netflix, Dazn, Google, Amazon, ...). This third -party traffic is usually managed through CDN of commercial content suppliers or CDNs (for example, Akamai, Cloudfront, Edgeio, ...), either with caches deployed inside or outside the operator's network.

A new concept: TV Roaming

The concept of TV Roaming is a proposal to solve the first of the previous limitations and consists in applying concepts similar to the well -known road networks. When a user accesses the TV service from the network of another operator, it is the CDN of this visited operator who delivers the content on behalf of the origin operator and under his control.

In this way, it is possible serve video content from the CDN of the operator closest to the user, which allows to offer a better QOE and at the same time generate savings in both operators, thanks to the reduction of peering traffic and the optimized delivery in the network of the visited operator.

The technical solution to implant TV Roaming is based on the Open Caching standard, defined by the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA), that thanks to its standard API allows content suppliers and CDN to interconnect with each other.

In the TV Roaming concept test carried out by Summn and Telefónica, both operators have interconnected their respective operator CDN using the Open Caching standard. In the case of Siminn, your CDN is based on the technology of Broadpeak, while Telefónica has used its own technology, called TCDN.

The tests have focused on the stage on which a Siminn user accesses their TV service from Spain through the Telefónica network, and delegates to the CDN Telephone (TCDN) for local delivery instead of a remote delivery from the Summnia Summine CDN. For now, the tests have been carried out in laboratory environments, but the objective is to be able to bring the same proof of concept to production in the coming months.

The solution to the second previous limitation is get the CDNS of the operators to deliver all video traffic which is consumed through the network of each operator, since they are the only ones that can guarantee the best QOE of the service and at the same time the greatest efficiency of the network, thanks to its greatest capillarity and proximity to the end user. Actually, the scenario is the same as in the case of TV roaming but where instead of the origin operator we are talking about a content supplier or a commercial CDN. Therefore, the technical solution is the same in both cases: Open Caching.

Thanks to the TV Roaming stage, operators have a great opportunity to value their CDNS and contribute to the consolidation of Open Caching as an industrial standard without having to wait for large content suppliers. Betting on this scenario, operators can improve the quality and efficiency of their TV services, and at the same time avoid the main obstacle to the massive adoption of Open Caching in the industry, their commercial availability.

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