Cisco Serves Up Content Delivery System

By CT Staff Report

Cisco announced on Monday that it had expanded the video and IPTV delivery capabilities of its Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture with the introduction of the Cisco Content Delivery System (CDS). This solution offers both cable and wireline providers a highly-extensible platform for the delivery of video-on-demand and time-shifted video services. The Cisco CDS enables carriers to accelerate the creation and distribution of advanced entertainment, interactive media and advertising services to subscribers' televisions, PCs, mobile handsets, portable media players and other media-capable devices.

The Cisco CDS is the latest addition to the Cisco IP NGN Service Exchange Framework, a suite of technologies designed to enhance IP service control and enable content personalization.

"People today are determined to choose not only what they watch, but also when, how and where they watch it," said Ron Westfall, principal analyst, broadband infrastructure for Current Analysis, in a press release. "Video content delivery systems must be able to quickly and seamlessly respond to open-ended viewing patterns, as well as address the trend toward social networking and user-generated content. The scalability of the Cisco CDS makes it uniquely capable of handling the video storage, personalization and streaming requirements needed to meet subscribers' rising expectations."

The Cisco CDS is composed of a network of appliances known as Content Delivery Engines (CDEs) which implement content storage, ingest, distribution, personalization and streaming capabilities. Groups of CDEs form a virtual platform for deployment of a variety of Content Delivery Applications (CDAs). In various combinations, CDAs enable service providers to deploy multiple high-value subscriber services such as targeted ad-insertion in broadcast video and video-on-demand (VoD); program time-shifting; local programming; "long tail" content; and public, educational and government channels.