kendra initiative CONTENT DELIVERY RESEARCH Content Delivery Summit Amsterdam February 2001 "Fueling the demand for broadband Internet" Daniel Harris - Content Delivery Adviser Atlantic - Instigator Kendra Initiative

kendra initiative CONTENTS n The Kendra Vision n Making the Vision a Reality n Kendra - What now? What next ?

kendra initiative WHAT DO WE ALL WANT? n Content Consumers want access to all content, on demand, via personal interface and will pay for it. n Content Creators/Aggregators want to get financial reward for and retain control of the their content. n Service Providers and Hardware/Software Vendors want to enable consumers and creators/aggregators to do business and get what they all want.

kendra initiative THE KENDRA VISION n Provide Consumers, Content Creators/Aggregators, Service Providers and Hardware/Software Vendors with a framework that will allow these organisations and individuals to be rewarded for their efforts. n Create an open and freely available content delivery architecture with no barriers to participation in its creation. n Build a system that allows users to pay for content. Provide an alternative to the current spate of Napster type P2P systems.

kendra initiative BUT WHAT’S GOING ON NOW ? n Convergence - Internet meets TV. n Everything over IP - providing a common platform for a variety of different services. n Exponential growth in users needs. Internet backbones not keeping up with demand. n Lack of QoS over Internet - cannot yet guarantee that streamed content will get to an end user without getting net congestion.

kendra initiative THE DANGER n 45 million Napster users with no comparable convenient alternative. n P2P systems are not killable (see Gnutella, Freenet). n We must build a more attractive (more reliable and more convenient) system or what's happening to the music industry potentially happens to the video/film industry and all other digital content.

kendra initiative CACHING IMPROVES QUALITY n Storing content close to viewer. n Not reliant on Internet connections for QoS. n Reduces bandwidth costs for ISP. n Enables higher bandwidth streaming content. n Provides fast response for viewer.

kendra initiative BUT SOON... n DSL will run at 8 Mbit/s - providing quality better than current broadcast TV. n We will need caching servers in every town, telephone exchange, head end, home and office. n We will need an open protocol to allow the exchange of cached content between caching servers (cross vendor) as no one vendor will rule. n We will need content peering.

kendra initiative KENDRA n Aims and Objectives: –Produce an Internet distribution and delivery system for the content industry. –Provide an open solution - plug in to existing and future software/hardware. –Bring key industry and academic players together to contribute to goal. –Bring the content closer to the end user to ensure improved QoS and allow users to pay for content.

kendra initiative REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCH A SYSTEM n Copyright management to track what content is going where and to make sure it is paid for (if required). n Did we say Metadata? n Intelligent caching mechanisms so that only content that is most needed stays on the caching server. n General redirect system to supply content from nearest server to the end user.

kendra initiative WHO BENEFITS FROM KENDRA ? n End User - high quality broadband content. Reduced net congestion. They are willing to pay for this. n ISP - lower Internet backbone bandwidth costs. Revenue from distributing content to edge of network. n Content Distributor - gets access to more content and more drop-off points off their own network. n Content Creator - content gets mirrored close to end user so adding quality and commercial value.

kendra initiative WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW ? n A live Internet trial to test the concept of a cross- vendor edge-server network. n Test video content served in Real System, Windows Media and QuickTime formats up to 3 Mbit/s. n At the time of writing there are over 250 organisations and individuals participating in the initiative and growing steadily. Companies include: Enron, Exodus, Groovy Gecko, Loudeye, Microsoft, Mirror Image and many more...

kendra initiative WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN ? n Continue webcasting on-demand content and introduce live content. n Get user feedback and develop our ideas further. n Get further industry/academic backing and support. n Develop protocol technical specifications.

kendra initiative WHAT YOU CAN DO ? n Get involved! n Kendra is your project too. n To find out how to participate come to the website:

kendra initiative CONTENT DELIVERY RESEARCH ANY QUESTIONS ?