Edge Cloud for Content Delivery for Rural Broadband Providers At-a-Glance

Deliver outstanding streaming content to subscribers

Bringing broadband internet services to consumers in many remote regions has been a challenge for rural service providers because internet subscriber fees, especially in sparsely populated areas, have not been enough to justify their private investments in network buildouts.

However, the social benefits of providing broadband internet access in these regions have been assessed to be significant, as subscribers will have direct access to education, healthcare, and many other digital services that positively impact people’s lives. In the United States, the government had taken a role since 1996 in providing public funds in support of broadband services in these rural areas, and much progress has since been made. Public funding initiatives have recently increased, especially driven by the recent pandemic, which raised the level of urgency for broadband internet access across many unserved regions. There are now more opportunities for rural providers to invest in, and expand their broadband access infrastructure. Fortunately, rural broadband service providers now have the opportunity to augment their existing and newly planned broadband services with outstanding streaming experiences, by leveraging a transformative approach to content delivery.

This is made possible by the Cisco^® Edge Cloud for Content Delivery, a solution based on Cisco’s innovations in edge computing combined with Open Caching technology developed by the Streaming Video Alliance (SVA) and commercialized by our solution partner, Qwilt, an SVA founding member. Further, rural broadband service providers who are members or become members of National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) have the additional benefit of deploying this upgrade at no cost through Qwilt’s joint initiative with NCTC. The upgrade consists of Cisco hardware preconfigured with Qwilt software and services.

Benefits

●     Higher customer satisfaction with a broader choice of consistent, high-quality streaming services

●     Reduced costs and simplified operations with unified management of multi-publisher content

●     Increased revenue through value creation as an active participant in the content delivery value chain

●     Business growth through an adaptable and scalable solution designed for meeting evolving and growing demands

Single API allows content publishers access to national network of NCTC Members

A unified NCTC content delivery network

Cisco Edge Cloud for Content Delivery helps ensure high-quality streaming content to rural subscribers by bringing content to the edge, closer to subscribers, and delivering content from deep within the service provider network. This approach reduces latency and, in turn, significantly improves the Quality of Experience (QoE) by offloading traffic at the network core and peering points. It offers an open API to content publishers, and every NCTC member that deploys this solution will be federated together by Qwilt’s cloud service into a unified and distributed national content delivery network (Figure 1). This makes onboarding for content publishers simple across the entire NCTC CDN footprint, while enabling service providers to offer a wide variety of content choices to subscribers. With Cisco Edge Cloud for Content Delivery, you can:

●     Deploy a solution that optimizes delivery of (over-the-top) OTT content as well as your own managed content.

●     Gain resource control, performance visibility, configuration flexibility, and ease of operations as you expand into more regions.

●     Leverage the network of content publishers already onboard the content delivery service, and provide more streaming choices to subscribers.

●     Deploy the solution with no capital investment and benefit from a unique revenue-sharing arrangement.

Unlike many other commercial and private content delivery networks, the Cisco Cloud Edge for Content Delivery solution provides a comprehensive offering to ensuring success—strong ecosystem partnerships, unrivaled and proven technology and domain expertise in both hardware and software, and a robust monetization platform.

Start building your future with Cisco Edge Cloud for Content Delivery today

For more information, see the resources below and contact your Cisco representative.

●     Deliver high-quality streaming content to any user, anywhere

●     Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud solution for service providers

●     Get information about the Streaming Video Alliance