Video Cloud Computing White Paper

8/17/2019 Video Cloud Computing White Paper

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VIDEO CLOUD COMPUTING – A PRIMER

Ronan Lhostis, March 2015


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1.

OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................................... 3

1.1

DEFINITIONS .............................................................................................................................................. 3

1.2

VIDEO CLOUD ............................................................................................................................................ 5

2.

HOW CLOUD COMPUTING WORKS ................................................................................................................. 6

3.

COST OF CLOUD COMPUTING ........................................................................................................................ 8

4.

VIDEO CLOUD APPLICATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 8

4.1

START-UP BUSINESS .................................................................................................................................... 8

4.2

RETURN ON INVESTMENT .............................................................................................................................. 8

4.3 TEMPORARY APPLICATIONS............................................................................................................................ 9

5. CONCERNS .................................................................................................................................................... 9

CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................... 10


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1. OVERVIEW

Nowadays, everyone seems to be talking about cloud computing.

But what does cloud computing mean for video delivery and especially for live processing?

1.1 Definitions

Cloud computing is a way of making computing resources quickly available for any computing task. Cloud

computing assumes the availability of an IP network for connecting all the various computing nodes.

This model arose from observations of IT deployment within companies. Company departments use specific

software dedicated to their business areas – general accounting software, customer relationship

management software or a web portal dedicated to promotion over the Internet – and this software is

usually installed on separate computers. In most cases, even if this software is running continuously it is not

using 100% of the CPU resources 24/7.

Cloud computing allows deployment of this software on a farm of standard servers or even a single

computer, and it runs as if it were located on standalone computers. IT management is simplified, usage of

computing power is optimized and less hardware is required for the same job.

A cloud architecture has several deployment models. In a private cloud architecture, the computer farm is

located in an internal data center, while in a public cloud use case, the computers are available via the

Internet and rented from a third-party company.

Public cloud providers include many types of services in their offerings. In addition to rental of computingresources they can guarantee architecture availability. In the event of a hardware component failure, the

software is automatically restarted on another server.

Public cloud providers also offer a library of software for rent on their system. This library contains standard

or third-party applications.

The terminology differs depending on the service provided.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) consists of the rental of hardware computer resources. Some low-level

services such as redundancy management could be included. The customer is required to provide the

complete software stack. IaaS means renting just the computers without any software installed on them.

The Platform as a Service (PaaS) model offers low-level software modules such as the operating system in

addition to IaaS. The customer provides the application to be run on the platform. Both IaaS and PaaS require

development skills for implementing and maintaining the chosen solutions.

Finally, in the Software as a Service (SaaS) use case, in addition to the platform the end software running on it

is also rented.


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Video file transcoding is a typical SaaS application. Companies are now offering the option to upload video

files via the Internet and their web portal, and in return for payment customers get transcoded versions in

numerous formats and bitrates.

In a SaaS setting, the hardware dimension disappears and even the cloud provider may also become invisible.

Customers just deal with a service provider through a website.

remote

servers


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1.2 Video cloud

Since communication with a cloud system is performed over IP, all processed data have to be available on IP.

Sending video files to a video cloud is relatively straightforward, but processing real-time video signals usually

available uncompressed on SDI wires requires IP encapsulation before uploading to the cloud. Hence, quality of

service becomes a key consideration for transport across the Open Internet.

Cloud processing needs to transport SDI over IP. The easiest way is via SDI compression with an encoder which

performs as an SDI-to-IP gateway.

In the same manner, data resulting from processing – for example, a TS multiplex with compressed video and

audio – needs to be downloaded from the cloud to be modulated before delivery via a satellite network.

Some tasks such as acquisition and modulation need to remain in the video delivery platform and performed

by locally operated devices. In between those tasks, any type of processing can be performed in the cloud.

Video and audio transcoding, logo insertion, splicing, ad insertion, OTT packaging, scrambling, and statisticalmultiplexing are all cloud-compatible.

Because cloud computers are connected to the Internet or are provided by worldwide cloud providers, global

data transfer could also be simplified by a cloud architecture.

With an OTT application, for example, data can be sent directly to a content delivery network (CDN).

encoders

(SDI-to-IP gateways)

Cloud

processing

management system

baseband

sources

compressed

sources over IP

modulator

video delivery platform

reception

IP network

(Internet or

dedicated lines)


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2. HOW CLOUD COMPUTING WORKS

All cloud businesses have different needs. Their storage size, processing power and operating systems may also

differ. To adapt to this wide range of requirements, cloud providers are installing virtualization software on the

servers they operate.

Virtualization software, also known as a hypervisor, views each server as a set of independent virtual

computers called Virtual Machines (VM) whose features fit individual customer requirements. The software

becomes agnostic of the hardware platform on which it runs.

Products used to run Windows applications on a Mac computer are examples of virtualization software.

VMware is a popular provider of these technologies.

Many cloud providers are present on the market. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Microsoft Azure areamong the best-known examples.

Cloud providers also need another piece of software, the Hypervisor Manager, to manage their computers and

allocate VM capacity and other network resources such as IP addresses to customers. Once granted access and

rights through this manager, cloud users start the VMs, load their operating system and software into them

and stop them once the processing tasks are completed. The manager keeps track of resource usage for each

user for billing purposes.

encoders

(SDI-to-IP gateways)

Cloud

processing

management system

baseband

sources

compressed

sources over IP

video delivery

CDN

to Internet

delivery

to cloud

processing

IP network

(Internet or

dedicated lines)


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OpenStack is a hypervisor manager that is relatively well-known and deployed by cloud providers.

Amazon EC2 runs a proprietary hypervisor and proprietary manager which allow implementation of several

business models.

More than 10 different virtual computer models are available in the Amazon offering, including GPU-based

VMs for task-intensive processing. Virtual computers can be booked in 5 different areas all over the globe. An

Amazon customer can even resell their virtual computer capabilities via auction-based websites such as eBay.

Hypervisor

Hardware & software deployed by cloud provider

System as perceived from a cloud customer (IaaS use case)

VM

Application A

Hardware Server

OS A

VM

Application B

OS B

VM

Application C

OS C

Hypervisor

Hardware Server

VM

Application D

OS D

VM

Application E

OS E

Hypervisor

Manager

OS

Hardware

Application A

Hardware A

OS A

Application B

Hardware B

OS B

Application C

Hardware C

OS C

Application D

Hardware D

OS D

Application E

Hardware E

OS E

VM: Virtual Machine, OS: Operating System


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3. COST OF CLOUD COMPUTING

Billing of cloud services relies on several criteria but costs basically depend on usage.

Criteria involved in the cost of a cloud solution are:

1) IP network incoming and outgoing traffic. Internal data exchanges between VMs located on the same

hardware or in the same farm are not billed. In some cases, cloud providers do not charge for exchanges

between servers located in different areas all over the globe. Cost could also depend on the type of IP

network. The Internet is cheaper than dedicated lines and offers higher availability.

2) Quantity and model of VMs, and type of subscription. VMs have to be selected from a list of models

depending on RAM size, CPU performance, and GPU resources. Different subscription models may also

exist depending on the minimum start time.

3) Real VM CPU time usage.

4) Volume of persistent storage used when VMs are not running.

5) License for software running on VMs.

By way of example, a broadcaster who transcodes the equivalent of 40 months of SD programs every month

for OTT purposes will pay half the price of a ground solution per month. Their investment is amortized over a

two-month period when buying a ground solution.

On the other hand, renting cloud resources to transcode a live 4K football game costs 90% less than buying the

required hardware.

Cloud computing is a growing trend but it does not necessarily fit every need.

4. VIDEO CLOUD APPLICATIONS

4.1 Start-up business

Cloud computing is ideal for starting a business. The key advantage of cloud services is their low investment

level. An Internet access is all you need to start working.

4.2 Return on investment

An operator with a data center could be interested in a cloud solution. A cloud approach avoids deploying

and buying specific hardware and concentrating on a single hardware model or brand to optimize the

investment. Cloud solutions increase software independence from hardware platforms, making migration to

another hardware manufacturer simpler.


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4.3 Temporary applications

Temporary use cases such as a trial or additional workload are well-suited to cloud architectures.

For instance, enabling additional live services for a special event is a good cloud application candidate.

With cloud computing, there is no need to buy and deploy additional devices that won't be used 100% of the

time.

Customers need to move on and can’t interrupt their business. Previously, the only solution they had was to

invest in a totally new system for deployment in their new location. With a cloud solution, it is possible to keep

the running system and to rent a cloud service while moving the infrastructure.

5. CONCERNS

There are always two sides of a coin and cloud computing is no exception.

Cloud computing becomes expensive when used 365 days a year compared to a physical video delivery

solution where the hardware is bought and not rented.

Availability could also be an issue since it has a strong impact on broadcasters. NetFlix suffered a 3-day

blackout in 2008 and Amazon EC2 a failure lasting several hours in 2012. Current public cloud solutions offer

99.9% uptime at their best, i.e. 2 hours of downtime per quarter for a 24-hour encoding service.

Private cloud solutions or cloud architectures can offer a better QoS but at a higher cost.

While cloud providers guarantee availability, the risk can be considered too high by some broadcasters.

Operating cloud as a PaaS or IaaS can be quite complex. Customers building their own solution may have to

coordinate several stakeholders such as the Telco operator for the cloud connection, the cloud provider and

the software provider. Establishing responsibility in the event of failure may not always be easy.

SaaS is the optimal solution as a single company is responsible for selecting the cloud provider and deploying

the software in the cloud. But Saas solutions are quite different from the currently deployed architectures.

Having a Saas provider managing both local video platform resources and cloud resources ensures a smoother

transition between the two environments.

Depending on the content value, some customers may also have concerns with outsourcing to a public cloud

company. Scrambling and conditional access might be needed to reduce the risk. For highly sensitive content, a

private data center solution may remain the only acceptable solution.


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of their respective companies. Specifications subject to change without notice. CDT-5226D. 10

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CONCLUSION

Cloud computing is an additional tool available to broadcasters seeking flexibility.

Currently deployed solutions mainly address file encoding. A good cloud solution for real-time video platform

delivery will need to offer several advantages to seduce broadcasters in terms of content protection,

availability, and flexibility. Under these conditions and in addition to premium processing and compression,

cloud computing may become more widespread among broadcasters.

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