At System73, we specialize in supporting content providers and distributors to deliver high quality of experience (QoE), low latency streams for live and VoD content. To do this, our Data Logistics Platform encompasses a suite of solutions, including Edge Intelligence and Edge Analytics, which work together to proactively optimize content delivery routes, and offload up to 80% of data traffic onto centralized peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Our Platform makes it possible to scale live streams infinitely to meet viewer demand, using advanced AI diagnostics to assess network traffic and capacity, and ensuring high QoE for up to 95% of viewers. This quality assurance inevitably leads to greater customer retention and lower churn rates, securing and even boosting revenue. 

In this article, we break down the challenges our Data Logistics Platform is designed to address, and how we manage to offload up to 80% of data traffic to keep up to 95% of viewers on the highest bitrate for their device. 

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Addressing the industry’s inefficiencies

Live content providers often grapple with limited visibility over the open internet, where billions of nodes are constantly competing for bandwidth. Most content delivery strategies rely on the Border Gateway Protocol. The BGP sends data over the “shortest” pathways and routers, in other words, those with the fewest hops. However, this method fails to monitor the available capacity of nodes and links along that pathway and, therefore, can fail to select the fastest route. This method is typically known as a "spray and pray" approach, and uses multiple bitrates to handle congestion and maximize data throughput, despite the lack of precision. 

Content delivery over the open internet, very much like parcel delivery, is fundamentally a logistical challenge. Both involve finding the fastest route and adapting to congestion by rerouting via alternative pathways. However, optimizing internet traffic routes has long been seen as an insurmountable mathematical problem due to the internet's unpredictable and ever-changing nature. The key lies in being able to see how much congestion is occurring, often in the critical middle mile due to spikes in demand associated with live events.

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Unprecedented visibility over the open internet

As mentioned above, the key to solving the inefficiency of “spray and pray” content delivery strategies is visibility. By observing and analysing the open internet using AI-driven network management, our solutions are able to proactively route content along the fastest pathway, which is not necessarily the shortest. With this in mind, we designed our Data Logistics Platform to provide unprecedented visibility over the content delivery network and second-by-second generation of data on viewers’ experience and behavior. 

As such, our platform empowers content providers with actionable insights that enable dynamic adjustments in real-time, ensuring optimal content delivery. This data can also be harnessed for root cause analysis and post-event insights into streaming performance, helping to identify the sources of congestion, improve strategies, reduce churn, and increase profitability. 

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Our solution: Edge Intelligence and centrally orchestrated broadcast trees

Our live content delivery solution, Edge Intelligence, leverages advanced peer-to-peer (P2P) technology in a modernized tree topology structure. Unlike traditional mesh-based P2P systems, our method uses a vertical hierarchy of "parent" and "child" nodes. This structure, combined with AI-driven logistics, calculates the most efficient delivery routes to ensure faster data transmission and optimal QoE. 

By connecting millions of end-user devices, our solution effectively distributes live content across vast geographical areas, surpassing the limitations of traditional CDNs. Edge Intelligence’s broadcast trees operate independently of physical edge servers, autonomously managing high volumes of traffic and offloading up to 80% of data traffic onto centralized peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.. As the network scales with demand, it becomes stronger, removing bandwidth limitations that often impact traditional solutions.

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Case study: Successfully delivering the 2024 UEFA Champions League Final 

On the 1st of June 2024, System73 successfully helped deliver the UEFA Champions League Final to fans around the world. Our Data Logistics Platform worked autonomously throughout the match to keep 95% on the highest rendition for their device, with 1080p being the highest resolution of the bitrate ladder, ensuring maximum QoE for almost every viewer. In order to achieve these results, our solutions offloaded up to 80% of data traffic onto centrally orchestrated broadcast trees, avoiding congestion and reducing latency. 

This achievement not only ensured fans a seamless viewing experience, it also demonstrated the Platform’s robustness in handling large-scale events. By efficiently routing traffic and maintaining high-quality streams during one of the most-watched soccer events of the calendar, it proved its capacity to support broadcasters in delivering flawless live content at scale. See our Case Studies and other resources for more in-depth insights. 

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For more reflections on trends in live streaming and content consumption, or to find out more about our content delivery solutions, visit system73.com.

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