Cisco Delivers

Cisco allies with major ISP players, including Network Appliance, to move content to the edge of the network, speeding delivery.

by Patricia Fusco
of internetnews.com
[August 29, 2000]

In its simplest form, peering is an invisible arrangement that exchanges Web-bound traffic between Internet service providers. Technically speaking, peering is an interconnection agreement that exchanges routing information based on Border Gateway Protocols.

Larger ISPs with big backbones basically agree to transport traffic from smaller ISPs in order to establish regional end points. By permitting peering parties' to peek into network access points, individual network owners provide the glue that binds the Internet together.

It should come as no big surprise that Cisco Systems Inc. Monday moved to form a major content alliance tasked with improving content delivery services in tandem with the launch of its new router lineup that is designed to do the same. (Cisco has been interested in the subject for some time and its extensive BGP manual is here.)

The gang
Industry leaders including Cable & Wireless, Digital Island (NASDAQ:ISLD), Genuity (NASDAQ:GENU), GlobalCenter, Mirror Image (AMEX:XLA), NaviSite (NASDAQ:NAVI), PSINet (NASDAQ:PSIX), and ServInt, along with technology vendor Network Appliance (NASDAQ:NTAP) joined Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) as charter members in its speedy content cause.

Tasked with accelerating the adoption of compatible Content Delivery Networks technology throughout the industry, the pact intends to define new specifications for peering standards. The alliance said it would submit a draft of the standards to the Internet Engineering Task Force later this year.

Cisco believes that enhanced content authorization between networks, and sharing logging or billing information for transit charges, will resolve routing issues that are currently convoluted by private, bilateral and multilateral peering agreements that can be free, or fee-based deals for transport.

The motto
The content alliance said it would develop open standards and protocols to advance content networking and deliver key technologies for a number of emerging areas, including content peering. With content peering standards in place, the sum becomes much greater than the many parts.

Web site owners will be free to work with their preferred hosting service provider, and still gain the reach of the combined peered networks. Cisco and its partners will be well positioned to profit from leading the charge into content delivery routing.

Krish Ramakrishnan, Cisco vice president and general manager, said the alliance is taking a two-pronged approach to deploy highly profitable content delivery services.

"By working with key service provider customers and leading technology providers, we are ensuring the adoption of CDN services is as smooth and rapid as possible," Ramakrishnan said. "Content Peering is a natural evolution of CDNs. Just as ISPs peer their networks today to share bandwidth and improve end-to-end performance, so will CDNs be peered in the future."

The web
Cisco's CDN system enables service providers to deliver new content-based routing techniques while simultaneously maintaining site availability and security that does not lower response times to the levels that have caused the impatient to call the Web "the World Wide Wait."

The Cisco CDN allows service providers to distribute content closer to the end user and overcome issues network bandwidth availability bottlenecks, latency obstacles, server scalability, and congestion issues during peak usage periods.

The system is made up of five technology areas:

• content distribution and management,
• content routing,
• content edge delivery,
• content switching,
• and intelligent network services.

Cisco's advanced content delivery system is designed to meet the transport needs of Internet service providers including overlay content service providers, Web hosting firms, and application service providers (ASPs).

The Cisco system leverages service providers existing network cache and server infrastructures to deliver end-to-end content delivery solutions.

On trial
Charter members of the alliance are participating in CDN field trials, which will enable the deployment of next-generation content networking services, including advanced e-business applications, interactive gaming, e-learning, and live television-like streaming. The tests will specifically measure Cisco's ability to work billing bugs for bandwidth out of the system.

Next-generation content delivery remains elusive, but the Cisco initiative may permit content-based companies to transform the nature of the Internet and take it to higher performance levels. The key is creating profit streams for businesses that will pay for bandwidth used during transport.

By moving content out of the center of the Net, closer to the edge, Cisco's architecture is capable of delivering content at speed that the demanding end user expects.

The money
Just because efficient billing is at the heart of the Cisco system, smaller service providers will not necessarily be priced out of competing with larger content deliver specialists. Independent ISPs remain free to strike peering agreements to establish interconnection deals with the network access points of their choice.

The only difference is that service providers may finally have the means to establish accurate billing systems for the bandwidth used to transport content across the many networks that make up the Internet. Cisco's delivery enhancement is capable of quickly opening up new enterprise-like revenue streams for most service providers that offer content services today.

—End