Bell Labs: Distributed IP Edge with CDN Caches can Reduce TCO by 33+%

A recent study by Bell Labs finds that "..By 2020 people in the US will be consuming 7 hours of video per day - mostly video on demand - which will place disproportionate stress on the IP edge of broadband networks .. The proportion of time spent watching managed video-on-demand services will grow from 33% to 77% .. Internet-based video consumption each year will grow twelvefold".

And the network effect:

• As unicast replaces multicast/broadcast - and video traffic levels surge - centralized content injection will drive up the cost of video delivery in the IP service network, as well as video server and link congestion, and impact service availability and quality.
   
• The extra expense of maintaining multiple networks, one for managed video and one for high-speed Internet service, will become prohibitive.
   
• BRAS routers simply do not have the capacity to handle the increased traffic load or the service intelligence to support the personalized video and Internet services customers are demanding.
   

"service providers that adopt a distributed IP edge with CDN caches can lower total cost of ownership of their network by more than 33% vs. those that maintain today’s centralized architectures"

See "Bell Labs Video Traffic Study" - here and study - here.