Build your own video CDN with Wowza Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn

2018-06-03 09:40:00

An integral part of the Wowza Streaming Engine is a unique module - the Wowza Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn, which allows you to configure the rules for distributing client connections between geographically distributed Wowza servers and thereby organize a corporate content delivery network - CDN.

After deploying individual Wowza Streaming Engine servers in the regions with the highest user concentration and setting up the Wowza Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn, all user requests for stream playback will be redirected to the nearest Edge server (node). Such distribution of user requests for viewing will significantly improve the quality of streaming and reduce the cost of international network traffic, reduce the load on the trunk communication channels and / or corporate network. Configurable rules allow you to determine the binding of a country / region / city to a specific Edge server. To determine the geographic location of the user, Load Balancer supports both a full-fledged paid edition of the MaxMind GeoIP Country database and a free distributed version of this library (with the accuracy of determining the location "up to the region"). You can also configure redirection rules without automatically determining the region, but simply adding the IP subnets of users in the module configuration. This is especially true for distributed corporate networks. Another important option is the ability to set the maximum number of connections and the bandwidth limit for each of the Edge servers. Thanks to this, your streaming system will be protected from exceeding the network bandwidth at each node. When the network load is close to the set values, all new users will be redirected to other network nodes. The Wowza Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn module provides users with many different options for setting distribution rules, supports the ability to switch back to another communication channel, which will allow you to reserve the source of the original stream. This mechanism is available both for live streams and for VoD content. Using all of the above options will allow you to create your own private CDN network.

The figure above shows the general scheme of the system during load balancing.

Edge servers periodically send data with resource utilization and the number of connections to the Wowza Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn, which always has up-to-date information coming from all nodes and distributes user connections there so that no link is overloaded. Groups of subscriber devices in different regions view the broadcast from the nearest Edge server. Initially, a request for a stream is sent to the Wowza Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn, regardless of where the content consumer is located or what viewing device it has. Wowza Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn accepts the request, analyzes and determines from which Edge server the client will receive the stream for viewing.

  1. initial view request
  2. Wowza Dynamic Load Balancing AddOn response with the Edge server IP address
  3. connecting the viewer to the Edge server
  4. receiving media stream by the Edge server from the Origin server
  5. viewing the media stream by the viewing device