On Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 12:09 PM, <valdis.kletnieks@vt.edu> wrote:
On Tue, 19 Jun 2018 11:33:50 -0400, William Herrin said:
The innovation I'd like to see is a multi-level streaming cache. Here's the basic idea:
Define a network protocol such as "mlcache"
mlcache://data.netflix.com/starwars/chunk12345 is a chunk of some video that netflix has. It's encrypted. The client got the decryption key for that chunk and instructions on how to load the chunks in what order in an authenticated http connection.
The client does not connect to data.netflix.com. Instead, it probes an anycast IP address to find the nearest cache. If there is no cache, then it falls back on contacting data.netflix.com directly.
If the cache probe returned a unicast IP address for a nearby cache then the client asks the cache to retrieve that chunk instead. If lots of folks using the cache are watching that particular video, the cache can supply the chunk without asking netflix for it again.
If the cache doesn't have the chunk, it contacts the next cache upstream. If there is no next cache upstream, it contacts data.netflix.com directly.
Congrats, you just re-invented BitTorrent. :)
Except for the peer to peer part and every other aspect of bit torrent save the chunked transfer. Regards, Bill -- William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>