(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Managed infrastructure solutions provider Limelight Networks (www.limelightnetworks.com) has introduced its next-generation global network platform, XD (www.limelightnetworks.com/platform), which features new patent-pending “Adaptive Intelligence” to its infrastructure, providing advanced levels of performance and increased insight into real-time content delivery conditions.
According to its Monday announcement, XD represents an evolution of the Limelight Networks’ operating environment software, which has powered the company’s content delivery service for more than eight years. After more than two years of research and development by the company’s engineering team, and thousands of hours of internal and field testing with customers, the new platform represents an expansion of this environment beyond delivery to include storage, analytics and computing subsystems that will support future value-added services.
“Content and applications are moving beyond the PC to smartphones, TVs, gaming consoles, widgets, and other connected devices,” Limelight Networks co-founder and chief technology officer Nathan Raciborski said in a statement. “With each device having its own unique characteristics, the historical industry approach of selecting the right server is no longer enough to achieve maximum performance on a consistent basis. With XD, we are combining network innovations and advanced software to actively manage each object delivery in real-time on a per-connection basis, ensuring a brilliant user experience across a wide variety of devices, even under extreme and changing network conditions.”
At the heart of the XD Platform is Adaptive Intelligence, a new software layer that harnesses the collective power of the company’s globally distributed computing resources to actively manage the delivery of every object in real-time. Using data collected surrounding each delivery request, such as content type, network connection, and user location, Adaptive Intelligence dynamically adjusts settings at the edge server to streamline and accelerate each specific delivery.
Limelight said that customers using XD-based delivery services will see overall performance improvements in speed, delivery consistency, and experience quality. They will also gain unique insights into real-time Internet conditions which will help them increase conversion rates, lengthen viewing or gaming times, and provide higher-quality end-user experiences. Additionally, customers will have the choice to use these new services for one segment of their content library, and use standard delivery for another segment.
The Adaptive Intelligence software layer includes four innovative new technologies, protocol maximization, globally distributed user agents, dynamic origin, and custom cache hierarchies.
Protocol maximization is a technique that dynamically adjusts in real-time the parameters of Internet-standard protocols on a connection-by-connection basis, adjusted by user location, network congestion, and content characteristics.
Numbering more than 8 million, globally distributed user agents are small programs deployed in nearly every last mile network that collect real-time data on Internet conditions, which is used in Protocol Maximization to dynamically adapt how Limelight delivers each object.
Dynamic origin is a technique which replicates origin content closer to the cache inside Limelight Network’s private network, protecting a customer’s origin against overload, while also improving responsiveness when a Limelight delivery center does not have a cached copy of the file to send to end users.
Finally, custom cache hierarchies speed up the transfer of content to the edge by providing a uniquely tailored “map” through the in-network cache hierarchy. Maps are configured based on the location and diversity of the customer’s origin servers, the location and distribution of the customer’s users, and the customer’s content demand and library access patterns.
