Smooth Streaming

Technical Overview
John A. Bocharov
(jboch@microsoft.com)
Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
What is Smooth Streaming?

Cacheable HTTP-based delivery method

for video, audio, text, and metadata

Platform-enabling technology for rich user

experience and video monetization

Feature in IIS Media Services end-to-end

media delivery platform
IIS Media Services Platform

User experience that smoothly scales to true HD

Best quality for the moment given network/CPU
Responsive interactivity (instant start/seek)
Platform to monetize video on the web
User engagement tracking and rich reporting
Technology that scales to your business
Industry-leading scale at lowest cost
Cacheable HTTP to align with Web infrastructure
Streaming and Prog. Download
Smooth Traditional Progressive
Streaming: Streaming Download
Best of both • Responsive User • Works from a
Experience Web Server
approaches • Bandwidth Use • World-wide scale
• User Tracking w/HTTP

Challenges Challenges
• No cacheability • Limited User
• Separate, Experience
smaller • User tracking
streaming • Bandwidth Use
networks (20% watched)
Media Delivery Approaches
Movie
Smooth Streaming

Video @ 01:04?
Video @ 01:06?
Video @ 01:08?

Traditional Streaming
Play Seek Pause

Progressive Download

Movie
The "Last Mile" Challenge
Low
“Best
quality I
Bandwidth
can
Fast CPU
download”
Edge
Server
“Best
quality I
can render”
High
“Best
Bandwidth
quality,
Slow CPU
period ”

Conditions
High change every
Bandwidth
second
Fast CPU

The “Last Mile” from Server to Client

Adapting Bit Rate in Real-Time
300K @ 00:00?
700K @ 00:02?
2.4M @ 00:04?
1.5M @ 00:06?
2.4M @ 00:08?
300K (start quickly)
00:00 00:02 00:04 00:06 00:08 700K (good network)
2.4M (great network)
2.4M 1.5M (glitch)
2.4M (play on…)

…
Bit Rate
Heuristics
300K
Scaling: Streaming Networks
Edges maintain 1:1 link with each client
Client sends commands: play, pause, seek, etc.
Server sends media packets
Every server must be a streaming server
Typically one tier of edge servers
Streaming capacity limits audience size
e.g. US Presidential Inauguration
Using a Streaming Network
Media Media
Origin Edges

Challenge: Scale
(“The Day Live Web Video Streaming Failed Us”)
Scaling: HTTP Networks
Comparatively massive
e.g. Akamai has 36,000 HTTP caches
(Source: SmoothHD.com)

Many tiers of HTTP caching used

HTTP caches are everywhere
ISPs
Enterprises
Remote regions
HTTP capacity not a limiting factor
Using an HTTP Delivery
HTTP
HTTP Edge
Network
Distribution Server
ISP
Servers s

HTTP
Origin
Remote
Enterprise
Region
Scaling: Smooth Streaming
Every N seconds is a cacheable object
Makes full use of existing HTTP networks
Adding a media origin enables streaming
Existing caching networks provide fanout
Media-aware caches add incremental value
Not a hard requirement to stream
Using Smooth Streaming

Media
Origin
Media Media
Distribution Edge
Servers Servers
Client-Server Platform Features
Advertising-based monetization
End-to-end platform for seamless ad insertion
Extensible business logic for asset selection
Advanced Logging
Real-time integration for log data
Rich user engagement data to improve ROI
Centralized client logging for large networks
Playback rate control and smooth
scrubbing
Summary
Getting Started w/Smooth Streaming

Reasons to use IIS Media Services

Light up your Web Site with Media
Give your users the best playback experience
Use platform components to scale and monetize
Start with IIS Media Services today by
Optimizing your Prog. DL content (1.0)
Solving the “Last Mile” w/Smooth Streaming (2.0)
Using Live, Advanced Logging, and Edge Caching (3.0)
Try IIS Media Services at http://iis.net/media
Demos and Showcases
http://iis.net/media/experiencesmoothstreaming
http://smoothhd.com
http://www.us.nextcdn.com/Silverlight.htm
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