I have been using number of CDNs over the last 5 years and they have been great at off setting server loads for sites that update information throughout the day. When it comes to live events there are some issues that need to be worked out for developers of Live Media.
The example I have been working on with CDNs is the Indy Racing Leagues live timing and scoring application. Over the past few years we have had an HTML version which had a TTL set to less than 10 seconds. The CDNs server would check our T&S server based on the time specified and determine what data had changed. If any images had changed that CDN would distribute out the correct image. If the data had changed, the CDN would then send the request from the user back to our servers to fulfill. This defeated the purpose of using the CDNs to offload continuous live data distribution to their servers and put it back on us. After four years of trying to work out different solutions with various CDNs we have moved on to another solution. This has been an issue for all live events that are pushing out a lot of data.
We are developing our next Live Timing and Scoring application using the Flash Media Server. So far our testing using this application has provided an uninterrupted continuous stream of data. The next step is to see if the CDNs can offset the load by distributing the continuous data from the Flash Media Server instead of sending the users request back to the origin. From a technical standpoint, this appears to be a better solution overall but only if there is a CDN that can offset the load. If anybody has developed live data using the Flash Media Server I would like to hear from you and the issues you have come across.
I will be showing some screen captures of the new T&S application and discuss the process of how it is being developed.
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