ISP Shares Transparent Caching Experience

Frank Bulk, Technology and Product Development Manager, Premier Communications, shared with Carol Wilson (pictured), Chief Editor, Events, Light Reading his reasons, expectations and results of using transparent caching (see video below and "Transparent Caching Saves Transport $" - here).

Highlights:

• Streaming video makes 55-70% of Premier's traffic, of which YouTube and Netflix are 82% and therefore the main goal - both to the vendors of transparent cache and operators  [at least in the US market]
• Caching could potentially save 30-40% of uplink bandwidth; 20-25% savings will represent a good ROI for transparent caching 
• CDN (Akamai, for example) is not an option for small ISPs, as volume is too low
• The success so far has been moderate, as some of the Netflix and YouTube traffic has not been identified - need to improve the signatures to increase cache hits