Ateme and MaxMind collaborated on video streaming that balances viewer satisfaction with compliance and security, combining Ateme's NEA CDN with MaxMind’s GeooIP databases.
Photo by Petter Lagson on Unsplash
Ateme and MaxMind have been working together on video a streaming technique that balances viewer satisfaction with compliance and security measures. It combines Ateme's CDN software with MaxMind’s IP address and Anonymous IP databases, and aims to support payTV providers by creating a system of high-quality, secure streaming services.
The two companies recently partnered to address the requirements of a large APAC PayTV provider. The organisation wanted to optimise video delivery for end users, but also needed to take geo-compliance and anti-piracy measures to safeguard the intellectual property associated with licensed content.
The approach to meeting these demands was integrating two of MaxMind's geolocation databases – GeoIP City/Country data and the GeoIP Anonymous IP database for VPN and proxy detection – into Ateme’s NEA CDN.
Optimising the QoE
The NEA CDN optimises the Quality of Experience (QoE) for viewers by ensuring that video content is delivered from the optimum (best-possible) cache location within the CDN. This precision delivery reduces latency and ensures fast loading times, resulting in a smooth, high-definition streaming experience. In effect, operators can use NEA CDN to build their own CDN, designed specifically for streaming, within their existing network infrastructure.
It reduces network load by shielding origin servers from multiple requests. Demands for network bandwidth are optimised through efficient routing and caching of user requests for content using algorithms – examples are content, device and popularity awareness. NEA CDN caches can be distributed geographically to cover multiple territories and positioned close to end users at the edge of the network, for instance in a data centre or peering location, improving customer quality of experience.
GeoIP Databases
"Our CDN cache optimisation is an advantage for video streaming, significantly enhancing the user experience by minimising buffering and stream interruption," said Dan Patton, Vice President of NEA Products. "By tapping into the best available cache based on MaxMind's IP address location data, we're raising the bar for quality in video delivery."
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
GeoIP software techniques are used to locate a computer’s geographic location by identifying its IP address. The GeoIP databases make various data points available such as time zone, ISP and connection type that can be used to personalise user experiences, target specific audiences and simplify operations. Other applications are regulations compliance, digital rights management and increasing online security – including proxy user detection.
Compatibility with different platforms and programming languages makes integrating MaxMind's databases fairly straightforward. They can be hosted locally to avoid network latency and per-query charges, and give global coverage.
Regarding proxy users, a proxy acts as an intermediary between a user and the web and has its own IP address, which allows users to obscure their actual address, as well as masking their identity and location. This ability makes proxy IPs useful for filtering web content and screening downloads, avoiding regional restrictions or simply providing anonymity.
Businesses use VPNs, also a kind of proxy, to create a secure gateway to corporate networks. Nevertheless, proxies can also become tools used to mask malicious behaviour and making it harder to track.
Joint Solution
The Ateme and MaxMind joint CDN solution contributes to compliance with content licensing laws in two ways – first, by limiting content access exclusively to authorized regions or countries, and second, through its anti-circumvention tools to prevent access from unauthorized users behind VPNs, proxy services and other IP-masking technologies.
Christopher Luna, Product Manager at MaxMind commented, "By combining our accurate IP geolocation and proxy detection data with Ateme's CDN, the resulting approach to geo-compliance can give peace of mind to PayTV providers who need reliable, effective methods of enforcing regional streaming restrictions."
The comprehensive video delivery system from Ateme met the PayTV provider’s requirements. "The combination of the Ateme video delivery solution and MaxMind's IP data optimises the quality of experience for their millions of subscribers, addresses their compliance requirements, as well as protecting payTV service revenues," Dan Patton said. www.ateme.com
