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VIDEO CLOUD COMPUTING A PRIMER

Ronan Lhostis, March 2015

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1.

OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1
1.2

DEFINITIONS .............................................................................................................................................. 3
VIDEO CLOUD ............................................................................................................................................ 5

2.

HOW CLOUD COMPUTING WORKS ................................................................................................................. 6

3.

COST OF CLOUD COMPUTING ........................................................................................................................ 8

4.

VIDEO CLOUD APPLICATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 8

4.1
4.2
4.3

5.

START-UP BUSINESS .................................................................................................................................... 8

RETURN ON INVESTMENT .............................................................................................................................. 8
TEMPORARY APPLICATIONS............................................................................................................................ 9

CONCERNS .................................................................................................................................................... 9

CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................... 10

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1. OVERVIEW
Nowadays, everyone seems to be talking about cloud computing.
But what does cloud computing mean for video delivery and especially for live processing?

1.1 Definitions
Cloud computing is a way of making computing resources quickly available for any computing task. Cloud
computing assumes the availability of an IP network for connecting all the various computing nodes.
This model arose from observations of IT deployment within companies. Company departments use specific
software dedicated to their business areas general accounting software, customer relationship
management software or a web portal dedicated to promotion over the Internet and this software is
usually installed on separate computers. In most cases, even if this software is running continuously it is not
using 100% of the CPU resources 24/7.
Cloud computing allows deployment of this software on a farm of standard servers or even a single
computer, and it runs as if it were located on standalone computers. IT management is simplified, usage of
computing power is optimized and less hardware is required for the same job.
A cloud architecture has several deployment models. In a private cloud architecture, the computer farm is
located in an internal data center, while in a public cloud use case, the computers are available via the
Internet and rented from a third-party company.
Public cloud providers include many types of services in their offerings. In addition to rental of computing
resources they can guarantee architecture availability. In the event of a hardware component failure, the
software is automatically restarted on another server.
Public cloud providers also offer a library of software for rent on their system. This library contains standard
or third-party applications.
The terminology differs depending on the service provided.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) consists of the rental of hardware computer resources. Some low-level
services such as redundancy management could be included. The customer is required to provide the
complete software stack. IaaS means renting just the computers without any software installed on them.
The Platform as a Service (PaaS) model offers low-level software modules such as the operating system in
addition to IaaS. The customer provides the application to be run on the platform. Both IaaS and PaaS require
development skills for implementing and maintaining the chosen solutions.
Finally, in the Software as a Service (SaaS) use case, in addition to the platform the end software running on it
is also rented.
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Video file transcoding is a typical SaaS application. Companies are now offering the option to upload video
files via the Internet and their web portal, and in return for payment customers get transcoded versions in
numerous formats and bitrates.

In a SaaS setting, the hardware dimension disappears and even the cloud provider may also become invisible.
Customers just deal with a service provider through a website.

remote
servers

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1.2 Video cloud

Since communication with a cloud system is performed over IP, all processed data have to be available on IP.
Sending video files to a video cloud is relatively straightforward, but processing real-time video signals usually
available uncompressed on SDI wires requires IP encapsulation before uploading to the cloud. Hence, quality of
service becomes a key consideration for transport across the Open Internet.
Cloud processing needs to transport SDI over IP. The easiest way is via SDI compression with an encoder which
performs as an SDI-to-IP gateway.

Cloud
processing
IP network
(Internet or
dedicated lines)

video delivery platform

baseband
sources
encoders
(SDI-to-IP gateways)
compressed
sources over IP

reception

modulator

management system

In the same manner, data resulting from processing for example, a TS multiplex with compressed video and
audio needs to be downloaded from the cloud to be modulated before delivery via a satellite network.
Some tasks such as acquisition and modulation need to remain in the video delivery platform and performed
by locally operated devices. In between those tasks, any type of processing can be performed in the cloud.
Video and audio transcoding, logo insertion, splicing, ad insertion, OTT packaging, scrambling, and statistical
multiplexing are all cloud-compatible.
Because cloud computers are connected to the Internet or are provided by worldwide cloud providers, global
data transfer could also be simplified by a cloud architecture.
With an OTT application, for example, data can be sent directly to a content delivery network (CDN).

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video delivery

to cloud
processing

Cloud
processing

IP network
(Internet or
dedicated lines)

baseband
sources

to Internet
delivery

CDN
encoders
(SDI-to-IP gateways)

compressed
sources over IP

management system

2. HOW CLOUD COMPUTING WORKS

All cloud businesses have different needs. Their storage size, processing power and operating systems may also
differ. To adapt to this wide range of requirements, cloud providers are installing virtualization software on the
servers they operate.
Virtualization software, also known as a hypervisor, views each server as a set of independent virtual
computers called Virtual Machines (VM) whose features fit individual customer requirements. The software
becomes agnostic of the hardware platform on which it runs.
Products used to run Windows applications on a Mac computer are examples of virtualization software.
VMware is a popular provider of these technologies.
Many cloud providers are present on the market. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Microsoft Azure are
among the best-known examples.
Cloud providers also need another piece of software, the Hypervisor Manager, to manage their computers and
allocate VM capacity and other network resources such as IP addresses to customers. Once granted access and
rights through this manager, cloud users start the VMs, load their operating system and software into them
and stop them once the processing tasks are completed. The manager keeps track of resource usage for each
user for billing purposes.

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Application A
AComputernstan
OS
ceA

Application B
AComputernstan
OS
ceB

Application C
AComputernstan
OS
ceC

Application D
AComputernstan
OS
ceD

Application E
AComputernstan
OS
ceE

Hardware A
(Server 1)

Hardware B
(Server 1)

Hardware C
(Server 1)

Hardware D
(Server 1)

Hardware E
(Server 1)

System as perceived from a cloud customer (IaaS use case)

Hypervisor
Manager

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

Application A
AComputernstan
OS
ceA

Application B
AComputernstan
OS
ceB

Application C
AComputernstan
OS
ceC

Application D
AComputernstan
OS
ceD

Application E
AComputernstan
OS
ceE

OS

Hypervisor

Hypervisor

Hardware

Hardware (Server)

Hardware (Server)

Hardware & software deployed by cloud provider

VM: Virtual Machine, OS: Operating System

OpenStack is a hypervisor manager that is relatively well-known and deployed by cloud providers.

Amazon EC2 runs a proprietary hypervisor and proprietary manager which allow implementation of several
business models.
More than 10 different virtual computer models are available in the Amazon offering, including GPU-based
VMs for task-intensive processing. Virtual computers can be booked in 5 different areas all over the globe. An
Amazon customer can even resell their virtual computer capabilities via auction-based websites such as eBay.

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3. COST OF CLOUD COMPUTING

Billing of cloud services relies on several criteria but costs basically depend on usage.
Criteria involved in the cost of a cloud solution are:
1)
IP network incoming and outgoing traffic. Internal data exchanges between VMs located on the same
hardware or in the same farm are not billed. In some cases, cloud providers do not charge for exchanges
between servers located in different areas all over the globe. Cost could also depend on the type of IP
network. The Internet is cheaper than dedicated lines and offers higher availability.
2)
Quantity and model of VMs, and type of subscription. VMs have to be selected from a list of models
depending on RAM size, CPU performance, and GPU resources. Different subscription models may also
exist depending on the minimum start time.
3)
Real VM CPU time usage.
4)
Volume of persistent storage used when VMs are not running.
5)
License for software running on VMs.
By way of example, a broadcaster who transcodes the equivalent of 40 months of SD programs every month
for OTT purposes will pay half the price of a ground solution per month. Their investment is amortized over a
two-month period when buying a ground solution.
On the other hand, renting cloud resources to transcode a live 4K football game costs 90% less than buying the
required hardware.
Cloud computing is a growing trend but it does not necessarily fit every need.

4. VIDEO CLOUD APPLICATIONS

4.1 Start-up business
Cloud computing is ideal for starting a business. The key advantage of cloud services is their low investment
level. An Internet access is all you need to start working.

4.2 Return on investment

An operator with a data center could be interested in a cloud solution. A cloud approach avoids deploying
and buying specific hardware and concentrating on a single hardware model or brand to optimize the
investment. Cloud solutions increase software independence from hardware platforms, making migration to
another hardware manufacturer simpler.

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4.3 Temporary applications

Temporary use cases such as a trial or additional workload are well-suited to cloud architectures.
For instance, enabling additional live services for a special event is a good cloud application candidate.
With cloud computing, there is no need to buy and deploy additional devices that won't be used 100% of the
time.
Customers need to move on and cant interrupt their business. Previously, the only solution they had was to
invest in a totally new system for deployment in their new location. With a cloud solution, it is possible to keep
the running system and to rent a cloud service while moving the infrastructure.

5. CONCERNS
There are always two sides of a coin and cloud computing is no exception.
Cloud computing becomes expensive when used 365 days a year compared to a physical video delivery
solution where the hardware is bought and not rented.
Availability could also be an issue since it has a strong impact on broadcasters. NetFlix suffered a 3-day
blackout in 2008 and Amazon EC2 a failure lasting several hours in 2012. Current public cloud solutions offer
99.9% uptime at their best, i.e. 2 hours of downtime per quarter for a 24-hour encoding service.
Private cloud solutions or cloud architectures can offer a better QoS but at a higher cost.
While cloud providers guarantee availability, the risk can be considered too high by some broadcasters.
Operating cloud as a PaaS or IaaS can be quite complex. Customers building their own solution may have to
coordinate several stakeholders such as the Telco operator for the cloud connection, the cloud provider and
the software provider. Establishing responsibility in the event of failure may not always be easy.
SaaS is the optimal solution as a single company is responsible for selecting the cloud provider and deploying
the software in the cloud. But Saas solutions are quite different from the currently deployed architectures.
Having a Saas provider managing both local video platform resources and cloud resources ensures a smoother
transition between the two environments.
Depending on the content value, some customers may also have concerns with outsourcing to a public cloud
company. Scrambling and conditional access might be needed to reduce the risk. For highly sensitive content, a
private data center solution may remain the only acceptable solution.

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CONCLUSION
Cloud computing is an additional tool available to broadcasters seeking flexibility.
Currently deployed solutions mainly address file encoding. A good cloud solution for real-time video platform
delivery will need to offer several advantages to seduce broadcasters in terms of content protection,
availability, and flexibility. Under these conditions and in addition to premium processing and compression,
cloud computing may become more widespread among broadcasters.

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Copyright 2015 Thom son Video Netw orks. All rights reserved. All other trade nam es referenced are service m arks, tradem arks, or registered tr adem arks
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