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                   B O S T O N   U N I V E R S I T Y
                      Computer Science Department
                          C O L L O Q U I U M
                      Friday, April 19, 3:00 PM 
                       (Coffee served at 2:45 PM)
                         Seminar Room / MCS 135


                   Streaming Content Delivery Networks

                         Ramesh K.Sitaraman
               Principal Architect, Akamai Technologies Inc.
        & Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst


                             Abstract

In this talk, we focus on content delivery networks (CDNs) for delivering
streaming media to end-users on the internet.  We look at critical drivers
of this technology, including considerations of performance, reliability,
and scalability. We then outline the technological challenges in building a
streaming CDN that is capable of simultaneously delivering hundreds of
thousands of high-quality streams to end-users in a reliable fashion. As an
illustration, we describe Akamai's FreeFlow(SM) Streaming service that
delivers live, simulive, and on-demand streaming content to end-users in all
the major formats. Akamai's delivery network for web content, streaming
media, and applications is a large, highly fault-tolerant platform that
comprises more than 13,000 servers within over 1,000 networks in 63
countries. In addition to describing specific technological challenges, we
also outline potential research issues that emerge in the context of
streaming CDNs.


Host: Shang-Hua Teng 
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For colloquium info, including directions, see http://cs-www.bu.edu/colloquium
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