In our evermore interconnected and globalized world, the supply and demand for live content is increasing year on year. As international events such as the American SuperBowl attract millions of viewers to the screen (113 million in 2023, making it the third biggest television program of all time), it is crucial to consider how to optimize content delivery from the perspective of all parties involved. 

One option is to deliver this content through a traditional CDN workflow and from CDNs directly to end users. However, potential roadblocks and challenges, such as increased latency during peak schedules, unforeseen outages, or geographical limitations, may come between content providers and expectant viewers, who may well abandon the session should they encounter too many interruptions or buffering periods. 

System73’s Edge Intelligence solution is the cutting-edge technology needed to enhance not only the scale but the quality of content delivery, especially in traditionally expensive and poorly-served regions, such as Latin and Central America, where demand for bandwidth has seen a CAGR of around 45% across several countries since 2017.

This article dives in for a closer look at how Edge Intelligence helps guarantee that global viewers enjoy high-quality, uninterrupted content wherever they are based. 

Troubleshooting and bypassing blockages

The worst-case scenario for any CDN is a complete outage. Unfortunately, no CDN is infallible; they can experience downtime or outages due to failures in the underlying network infrastructure, software bugs, spikes in traffic and server overloads. 

Content providers with a multi-CDN strategy in place, for example, can mitigate the risk of interrupted content caused by a single point of failure. System73’s decisioning solution, Edge Delivery, enables mid-stream content switching should one CDN fail to perform.

But regardless of having one or multiple CDNs in place, content providers must be confident that edge servers will successfully deliver their content to viewers halfway around the world, even at peak times when traffic spikes. This is where Edge Intelligence comes in. 

Taking the pressure off CDNs

Edge Intelligence has been designed to improve redundancy and implement the most intelligent, optimal and cost-effective rerouting of content to bypass congestion.

This AI-based logistics solution is fed with data gathered by Edge Analytics, System73’s proactive video analytics solution, which offers unique visibility over the entire open internet. Edge Intelligence therefore forecasts congestion and optimizes transportation pathways to identify and action the optimal delivery route for your content.

But it doesn’t stop there. Edge Intelligence also seamlessly leverages peer-to-peer (P2P) connections without affecting the end user’s QoE, drastically reducing the need to rely on CDN bandwidth capacity. In this sense, System73 can provide significant advantages in traditionally expensive and hard-to-reach regions where CDNs are often sparsely located and as such, suffer from more latency than in better-served areas. 

Edge Intelligence can alleviate the pressure of CDN traffic by more than 80%, where the System73 P2P network handles the optimized routing while improving the overall QoE. This means that over 90% of viewers will continue to enjoy live events in the highest resolution available.

Leveraging peer-to-peer connections for optimal and more cost-effective delivery

By leveraging viewers’ device connectivity and enabling P2P connections to reroute content, Edge Intelligence helps free up bandwidth and reduce the traffic assumed by individual CDNs, increasing their operational capacity. By delivering content to a much smaller number of users, they can maintain the quality not only of the streamed content, but also the delivery pathways by reducing the risk of congestion. 

This increased delivery capacity not only enhances performance and reduces the risk of failure, it also increases the earning potential of CDN owners. With increased bandwidth, CDNs can partner with more clients and content providers, and accommodate demanding video resolutions and formats like 4K, 8K, HDR and high frame-rate content.

Edge Intelligence delivers a sure-fire solution for working smarter instead of harder, more cost-effectively. This ultimately translates into infinite scalability to support the largest events broadcast worldwide.

For more information or to book a call, visit system73.com/edge-intelligence.