Cisco: Introduction to "Flow Metadata"

 
A post to Cisco's blog by Ulrica de Fort-Menares (pictured), Director of product management, Medianet, discusses Flow Metadata "..allows an application to explicitly signal any arbitrary attributes to the network from node to node. This avoids the pitfall of data not being visible for deep packet inspection due to increasing use of encryption and obfuscation".

See "Cisco's Medianet Brings QoS For Video Using DPI" - here.

 

"Tradition network classification solution using deep packet inspection technology is localized as classification may not be available along the path. How can network element enforce policies if they do not have uniform view of traffic to apply consistent enforcement of network policies ? Flow Metadata is reusable across network nodes by allowing sharing of flow attributes amongst network nodes. This allows appropriate and consistent policies to be applied at each hop, end to end, improving the quality of experience".

Source: Cisco - Medianet Metadata 

See "A new Application recognition paradigm – Flow metadata" - here.

QoS Deployments (25): BT Selects Cisco's Video Content Delivery System

  

6 months ago Cisco announced Medianet (see "DPI Announcements - Cisco's Medianet Brings QoS For Video Using DPI" - here) as an enterprise solution that "enables the detection and optimization of video and video endpoints". I was wondering then if ISPs will be using the solution as well ..

Now we see that BT has decided to use Medianet - "The Cisco Content Delivery System (CDS) using medianet technologies enables BT Wholesale to establish broadband as a TV platform. Content Connect will deliver digital content to any computer, TV or mobile device on behalf of UK internet service providers giving broadcasters access to a large end user base – irrespective of service provider or technology"

See "BT Collaborates With Cisco To Deliver Online Video Platform" - here (Cisco) and here (BT)

"The collaboration with Cisco helps ensure that BT’s next generation Content Connect platform can cache content deep in the broadband network and so deliver it much closer to the end user – avoiding congested areas of the network. .. Based on Cisco CDS, BT Wholesale’s Content Connect service can offer a UK-wide service with quality of service (QoS) assurance and detailed reporting and analytics on how the customers’ content is being consumed. CDS also enables customers using BT Wholesale’s platform to monitor network status, and a broad array of details about the broadband user experience – all available on a single portal-based view. And, security concerns are reduced as content delivery will take place within a private network, avoiding the internet altogether."

The video delivery market (distribution and/or caching) targeting network operators (wholesale in this case), gained some traction recently. See the following posts for information on offering from Juniper, PeerApp, Huawei, Bluecoat and others.

• DPI/QoS Announcements: Juniper VXA Media Flow Engine  - here
• Yankee Group: CDNs Expand to Mobile Broadband [Independent Caching OK?] - here
• DPI/QoS Deployments (20): MWEB [South Africa] Uses PeerApp to Improve QoE  - here
• P2P and Video Caching: Huawei iCache Solution - here
• DPI Announcements - Blue Coat Introduces Carrier Caching Appliance - here 

DPI Announcements - Cisco's Medianet Brings QoS For Video Using DPI

 

Cisco announced yesterday (here) the delivery of its "Borderless Networks Vision".

The interesting part for me is the MediaNet part, discussing optimization of video traffic:

" .. Medianet solutions enable businesses to take advantage of video applications to transform workforce interactions. Medianet technology enables the detection and optimization of video and video endpoints, as well as the allocation and prioritization of network resources so that video can be delivered from one type of device, such as a Cisco TelePresenceTM unit, to another type, such as a laptop or mobile phone. Medianet 1.0 is now supported on the new Catalyst fixed switches and Cisco ISR G2 routers"

Looking deeper into Cisco's documentation on Medianet shows it uses DPI: 

" .. Therefore, packet classification needs to evolve to utilize deeper packet inspection technologies in order to have the granularity needed to distinguish between different types of media streams ... QoS continues to evolve to include more granular queuing, as well as additional packet identification and classification technologies. One advance is the Cisco Programmable Intelligent Services Adapter (PISA), which employs deeper packet inspection techniques mappable to service policies. Intelligent features like PISA will continue to evolve at the network edge to allow application intelligence, enabling the network administrator to prioritize critical applications while at the same time control and police unmanaged or unwanted applications which may consume network resources..." (Overview of a Medianet Architecture -  here).

So we get here an additional level of traffic classification (and QoS) - not just "Video" but classifying the video itself – (see, for example, Cisco Media QoS Recommendations (RFC 4594-based)"

This is certainly important to enterprise networks - and could be interesting if deployed by ISP!