Telecom Italia Deployed Qwilt to Improve OTT Streaming Video QoE

Qwilt announced that "Telecom Italia has deployed Qwilt's award-winning open caching solution to boost network capacity and improve quality of over-the-top (OTT) streaming video for its more than 30 million customers. Telecom Italia implemented Qwilt's solution to provide enhanced quality of experience (QoE) for its subscribers using online video and live streaming services from OTT content providers in Italy.

 .. The operator deployed the Qwilt open cache solution over a year ago to create a scalable architecture for its network and has experienced improved performance that meets the needs of its customers.

Qwilt's solution is delivered as a fully managed service to speed deployment and streamline ongoing operation. The broader operator organization -- including network planning, engineering and operations teams -- benefits from comprehensive media analytics, which offer insights into growth trends, content sources and consumer preferences.

By relying on open caching for online video delivery at the network edge, operators can substantially reduce network capital and operational costs -- a typical open cache deployment yields a return on investment (ROI) in less than 12 months.

The open caching deployment at Telecom Italia was supported by local systems integrator Proxy.

See "Telecom Italia Deploys Qwilt to Optimize Over-the-Top Video Content for Improved Customer Quality of Experience" - here.

Qwilt Adds Remote Management and Cloud-based Analytics

Qwilt revealed ".. two new offerings: the Qwilt Video Fabric Management Service (VFMS) and Qwilt Network Media Analytics (NMA) solution for network operators.

Qwilt Network Media Analytics

Qwilt Video Fabric Management Service

• The Qwilt Video Fabric Management Service (VFMS) is a fully managed, proactive remote network monitoring and management service that includes the following capabilities: Real Time Monitoring .. Video Fabric Diagnostics .. Proactive Health and Media Signature Updates.
  
  
  
  
  
• The Qwilt Network Media Analytics (NMA) solution is a cloud-based product that provides operators with unprecedented visibility into video delivery performance, online video consumption trends and Quality of Experience, with capabilities including: Visibility into Open Cache Performance ..Online Video Consumption Statistics and Trends and Real Time Quality of Experience (QoE) Reporting.

See "Qwilt Video Fabric Management and Network Media Analytics Offerings Deliver Unmatched Operational Simplicity and Network Visibility for Online Video Delivery" - here.

Qwilt Raised $25M; Has 50 Customers

Inbal Orpaz reports to TheMarker that "Qwilt raised additional $25M in its 4th round, bringing the total investments to date in the caching company to $67M [see Aug '13 "Qwilt has 40 Customers and 10 Trials; Raised $16M" - here] ... Qwilt has 100 employees and plans now to add 30 to its Israeli R&D center". 

Estimates are that the company valuation is $200M, the revenues in 2014 were several tens of $millions, expected to be doubled this year. The company said that in 2014 its revenues grew by 400%.  

Qwilt has 50 customers [see CallPlus, ViewQwest. kbro. Toyama. Mediacom], including the largest ISPs, and installed 80 new devices during 2014"

[Technavio]: 33% CAGR for Transparent Caching Market 2015-2019

A new report by Yechnavio finds that the "global transparent caching market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 33% from 2015-2019.

.. over the last five years, global consumer Internet traffic has increased by more than five times. OTT content such as videos, file sharing, web surfing, and online gaming have grown significantly. Web surfing includes accessing web content, emails, and online data, apart from videos.

This is a small CAGR increase compared to the previous report predicting a 31.3% for 2013-2018 (here).

"The traffic is expected to increase from 34.29 Exabytes per month, in 2014, to over 98.16 Exabytes per month, by 2019. An increase in Internet traffic will increase the demand for transparent caching from network operators and MSOs. It will also help the operators provide the highest QoE to their subscribers and achieve cost efficiency.

Key Vendors: Akamai Technologies, Blue Coat Systems, Juniper Networks, PeerApp and Qwilt. 

Other Prominent Vendors: Alcatel-Lucent, Allot Communications, ARA Networks, Brocade, BTI Systems, Cisco Systems, Conversant, Fortinet, Google, Huawei, Level 3 Communications, MaraSystem, SuperLumin Networks, Swiftserve and VidScale".
    

See "Global Transparent Caching Market 2015-2019" - here and "Transparent Caching Market to Grow at 33% CAGR by 2019 Says a New Research Report at ReportsnReports.com" - here. 

SVA Published Open Cache Guiding Principles

    

The Streaming Video Alliance (SVA) published "..guiding principles and system attributes from its Open Caching Working Group. The SVA was established to create an open architecture, standards and best practices to support the future of online video"

SVA member list includes vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Qwilt [see "Qwilt: "Open Transparent Caching" vs. Content Providers' "Black Boxes""- hereas well as CSP such as Comcast, KT, Telecom Italia and Telstra. However,major OTT VIdeo providers such as Netflix are not there.

"..  the Streaming Video Alliance has commissioned the Open Caching Working Group to develop proposed standards, best practices and policy to support a new layer of content caching within the ISP network, close to consumers. 

The Open Caching Working Group, commissioned earlier this year, has already developed a guiding principles document which will serve as the basis for a proposed Open Caching specification. This new Open Caching layer will perform a network function, optimizing network capacity utilization and quality of experience. Moreover, the Open Caching Layer will be open and universal, able to optimize any HTTP, HTTPS or other delivery protocols from any provider.

The attributes of Open Caching system include:

• Open - Components of the system can be implemented by anyone
• Universal - The system can serve any content provider stream, including HTTP, HTTPS or other delivery protocols
• Shared Resource - The system optimizes the use of storage and compute resources for many content providers
• Fairness - Content is treated objectively and in real time
• Network Function - The system creates alternate network capacity and reduces congestion within the ISP network as well as reduces server capacity requirements for the content provider
• Software-based - Components of the system can run as a software solution
• Quality of Experience (QoE) - The QoE for end users being served by the Open Cache will meet or exceed the current QoE without the Open Cache in place.

See "Streaming Video Alliance Publishes Open Caching Guiding Principles and Attributes" - here.

Qwilt Goes to School: Saves 65% of Video Bandwidth and 96% of iOS Updates

Qwilt announced several deployments in college campuses that - ".. provides behind-the-scenes technology which fuels the new college lifestyle that now includes consuming copious amounts of online video such as educational streaming content, binge-able shows on Netflix and streaming Twitch tournaments. 

.. Jason Sebastiani, Principal Network Engineer at Grand Canyon University said: “.. After just one week of automatically learning what it could cache, we turned the Qwilt cache on and got immediate savings. Qwilt’s Open Cache solution currently serves close to 1GB per second of our streaming video peak traffic per day, which is about 65 percent of our total video bandwidth.”

Grand Canyon University (GCU) also benefitted from Qwilt’s solution when the bandwidth-heavy iOS 8.0 update came out. The Apple software update, which slowed traffic on networks nationwide, was considered a non-event for GCU because Qwilt cached it immediately and then delivered over 96 percent of the iOS updates from cache, allowing the average user to upgrade their Apple devices in minutes.

In addition to GCU, other schools that have deployed Qwilt’s Open Cache solution to date include: Lynn University, Western Kentucky University, University of Alaska and University of Hartford.


See "Qwilt Makes Online Video ‘Binge-able’ on College Campuses" - here.

Cache Deployments [330]: CallPlus Brands [New Zealand] Uses Qwilt

Qwilt, announced it will ".. power the online video traffic delivered by leading New Zealand telcos Slingshot and Orcon. Qwilt’s Video Fabric Controller will be used by Slingshot and Orcon, both owned by New Zealand fixed line, voice, mobile and internet company, CallPlus, to cache and deliver online video traffic from a growing number of content providers, including Amazon, Apple, Hulu, Netflix and Twitch".

Back in July 2011, Bluecoat announced "CallPlus has selected Blue Coat®CacheFlow® 5000 appliances to help manage the large and growing demand of its customers for Internet content from outside New Zealand" (here) and in September 2010 Alcatel-Lucent announced that "it has been chosen by Orcon, the fastest growing service provider in New Zealand, to improve the delivery and experience of Internet-based video to its customers" (here).

"CallPlus selected Qwilt for the job because other vendors were unable to meet Slingshot and Orcon’s requirements for universal caching. Upon deploying Qwilt’s open caching technology, Slingshot and Orcon saw immediate savings in international transit costs and improved quality of experience (QoE) for its subscribers, when compared to competitive caching products".

See "Qwilt Selected by Slingshot, Orcon to Cache Increasingly Popular OTT Video Content" - here.

Qwilt Launched a Mobile Core and Edge Video Open Cache Solution

Qwilt unveiled the ".. Qwilt Mobile Video Fabric, purpose built to address the unique challenges of over-the-top (OTT) video delivery for mobile service providers. Qwilt Mobile Video Fabric is a new software defined networking (SDN)-based open caching and acceleration suite, allowing mobile operators to improve the performance of their network while maximizing their current infrastructure investment.

..The network strain, which will only get worse, is already causing the quality of experience (QoE) for video viewing to suffer from issues such as radio access network (RAN) congestion, buffer bloat, latency and packet loss in both RAN and mobile backhaul.

.. the Mobile Video Fabric, enables dynamic caching of unmanaged and managed streams of video content on mobile networks. This open caching solution, which can be deployed either at a centralized (Gi/SGi) level or distributed (eNodeB) level, will extract the most value and capacity from existing mobile network infrastructure by improving network effective capacity by up to 35 percent. Powered by the SDN-based Qwilt QwOS™ software and enhanced with transmission control protocol (TCP) acceleration capabilities, the Qwilt Mobile Video Fabric reduces network latency, improves throughput and addresses complicated mobile video RAN and backhaul challenges such as packet loss and congestion".

See "Qwilt Launches NFV-based Caching and Acceleration Solution to Power Video on Mobile Networks" - here.

Cache Deployments [323]: ViewQwest [Singapore] Use Qwilt to Improve QoE on Fiber

Qwilt announced that "ViewQwest, Singapore’s premium fiber broadband operator, has deployed the Qwilt Video Fabric Solution to deliver improved quality of experience (QoE) to ViewQwest’s customers ..  

When fiber broadband was introduced to consumers and businesses in Singapore, ViewQwest took full advantage by launching Fibernet, a superior service for popular online game streaming applications like Twitch, and online video streaming sites such as Netflix and YouTube".

Vignesa Moorthy [pictured], CEO, ViewQwest said: “Our Fibernet service was designed to eliminate antiquated practices such as severe caps on international bandwidth, traffic shaping, port blocking and throttling of downloads and torrents. We needed an innovative approach to caching that doesn’t sacrifice quality of experience or performance of our service offerings,.. We also saw an immediate improvement in network optimization and are very impressed with the QoE we are now able to offer our customers”.

Alon Maor, CEO, Qwilt said: "We are honored to provide a solution that can reduce the amount of OTT video traffic by up to 80 percent and offer a higher QoE across all major content provider sites.”

See "Qwilt’s Plug-and-Play QB-Series Video Fabric Controller Deployed by ViewQwest" - here.

[TechNavio]: Transparent Cache Market to Grow at 31% CAGR

A new report by TechNavio finds that ".. Transparent caching is a solution that enables the service provider to offload a significant amount of content traffic by storing a cached copy of the popular content close to the edge of the network, which is delivered to the user directly from the edge of the network rather than from the source. It is invisible to both the content originator and the end user, hence the name. 

TechNavio's analysts forecast the Global Transparent Caching market to grow at a CAGR of 31.3 percent over the period 2013-2018".

TechNavio identifies Blue Coat Systems (here), Juniper Networks, PeerApp (here) and Qwilt (here) as key vendors and Akamai, Alcatel-Lucent (here), Allot Communications (here), ARA Networks, Brocade, BTI Systems (here), Cisco Systems (see "Cisco Partners with PeerApp" - here), Fortinet, Google (here), Huawei (here), Level 3 (here), SuperLumin Networks, Swiftserve (here), VidScale as prominent vendors

See "Global Transparent Caching Market 2014-2018" - here.

Cache Deployments [318]: kbro [Taiwan] Selected Qwilt

Qwilt announced that :it has been "chosen by kbro, the largest cable operator in Taiwan, to provide a solution for the staggering growth of over-the-top (OTT) video on demand (VOD) and live video traffic, including Twitch, the largest live video site in Taiwan

kbro serves over 400,000 customers—who expect high performance—and Qwilt’s solution allows kbro subscribers to view high quality content almost instantly in addition to support for unique video sites in Asia including Youku, FC2.com and QQ.com. Qwilt’s unique media signature approach to video classification and caching is part of the reason its caching efficiency is so high when compared to legacy caching solutions".

See "Taiwan’s Largest Cable Operator Implements Qwilt, Sees Up To 385% Increase in Customer Quality of Experience" - here.

Qwilt: 400% Y/Y Increase in NA Cable Customers

Qwilt announced "over 400 percent growth in new North American customers over the past 12 months. New customers include regional and national Cable System Operators who are deploying Qwilt’s Open Caching Architecture in their networks across North America to solve the problem of insatiable demand for live and on-demand streaming video into the home". 

Customers in the release are Clear Lake (Iowa) and Yucca Telecom.


See "Qwilt Solves Online Video Bandwidth Challenges for North American Cable System Operators" - here.

Qwilt: "Open Transparent Caching" vs. Content Providers' "Black Boxes"

Some quotes from a GigaOm post with Qwilt's CEO, Alon Maor [pictured]:

• Since launching Qwilt in 2011, I’ve seen online video grow to be one of the hardest challenges network operators face today. In my role as CEO, I’ve overseen Qwilt’s engagements with more than 150 network operator customers worldwide - some of whom are experiencing 90% growth of video year over year which translates to 60% growth of their overall internet traffic [see "[Sandvine] NA Cord-Cutters Stream 3 Hours of Video a Day" - here]. This presents not only a tremendous opportunity, but also its own set of challenges.
   
• .. content providers like Netflix and Google now regularly publish ISP rankings that expose both the best and worst performing ISPs by region .. Ultimately, these rankings ensure accountability lies with the network operator instead of the content provider when the consumer’s experience is unsatisfactory [not always .. - see "Netflix - Speed to Comcast Customers Continue to Surge" - here] and network performance is the cause.
   
• A number of US cable operators, including Mediacom Communications [here], have deployed transparent caching technology to leverage the value of caching video deep in their networks, close to consumers.

• Transparent caching deployed inside operator networks embraces an open architecture. This infrastructure is transparent, universal, neutral, trusted and secure. This open architecture stands in contrast to the closed cache systems operated by some content providers today which appear as black boxes to network operators [see "Netflix CDN Customers have More Fun" - here].
  
  These closed caches systems address only one content provider at a time and, therefore, reduce the ability of operators to optimize traffic on their networks. So, for example, content streamed from Content Provider A will not be cached by Content Provider G’s closed cache.
   
• Content providers are considering further steps to obscure their content. Indeed, last November, Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman said, “Encrypting everything could end government censorship for a decade.”

See "Will cable operators, CDNs and ISPs make or break the future of online streaming video?" - here.

Cache Deployments [299]: On Telecom [Brazil] Optimizes Netflix with Qwilt

Qwilt announced that "On Telecom, a fast growing leading Brazilian 4G TD-LTE broadband provider, has selected the Qwilt Video Fabric Controller to help solve their over-the-top (OTT) video problem. On Telecom currently faces rapidly increasing network usage resulting from the popularity of its high-speed broadband offering that encourages customers to consume more streaming video from sites like Netflix, YouTube and many others. Qwilt’s Video Fabric Controller has been deployed by On Telecom to save network costs and improve quality of experience (QoE) for its subscribers".

See "Qwilt Selected by On Telecom to Solve OTT Video Challenges" - here.

[GigaOM] Content, Service Providers and Caching Vendors Cooperate

Interesting report by Stacey Higginbotham [pictured], GigaOM, following "Content companies including Viacom and HBO have met with folks from Comcast, Qwilt [see "Qwilt Adds Live Streaming Caching" - here] and others to discuss transparent caching as a way to solve the problem of online video".

"One solution to this challenge [delivery of streamin video] is transparent caching, where operators buy software that allows them to manage and cache content inside their networks without the operator having to intervene in determining the cached content. A group of content providers, network gear providers and ISPs are evaluating transparent caching as part of an unannounced standards group seeking to improve online video delivery overall".

"Big content companies don’t want to pay a middle man to deliver their content, when they are delivering so much of it. That’s one reason for the Netflix and Comcast showdown [see "Comcast and Netflix - BFF ("no preferential network treatment") - here]. But vendors from Cisco [see "Cisco Partners with PeerApp" - here] to startups like PeerApp [see "[F&S]: 'PeerApp is the clear current market leader in the transparent caching industry'"- here] and Qwilt are experimenting with an alternative called transparent caching. Unlike traditional caches where the content lives outside the operator network and is managed by a more manual process of purging and refreshing caches at different intervals, transparent caching is deployed inside the ISP’s network and uses software to understand what content needs to be cached without human intervention".

Read more - "Will transparent caching reshape the future of video on the internet?" - here.

Procera Expands Optimization Offering; Partners with Qwilt

  

Loyal to its partnership model (see "Procera Partners with Avvasi; Prefers Partnerships over Allot's Acquisitions Strategy" - here), Procera Networks partners with Qwilt for additional optimization capabilities.

The two vendors announced a " partnership to offer network operators a best-of-breed transparent caching and Internet Intelligence solution that addresses network challenges resulting from the rapid growth and consumption of online video. Qwilt’s QB-Series transparent caching technology and Procera’s PacketLogic™ platform together provide network operators with a unified, plug-and-play solution to seamlessly deliver over-the-top (OTT) video traffic and improve quality of experience (QoE) for their subscribers.

..With this partnership, network operators can prepare their networks for the growth of online video traffic, bandwidth utilization and QoE, and optimizing traffic with network insights. Network operators will benefit by: Ease of Deployment, Network Resources Optimization and Service Model Innovation"

See "Procera Networks and Qwilt Partner to Launch Online Video Delivery and Analytics Solution for Network Operators" - here.

Qwilt Adds Live Streaming Caching

Qwilt unveiled the ".. industry's first transparent caching solution for live-streamed events online: Qwilt Live Stream Cache .. enabling the efficient delivery of high-quality live OTT event streaming to broadband subscribers worldwide ..  This uniquely helps service providers scale their infrastructure and optimize the flow of VOD and live video traffic across their networks, while improving QoE for their subscribers. Qwilt's QB-Series Video Fabric Controllers deliver an optimized network architecture to support popular live-streamed video events such as sports, concerts and online gaming from sites such as YouTube Live and ESPN.com. The new Qwilt Live Stream Cache lets network operators support live streaming events to reach millions of subscribers faster, and with vastly more improved QoE.

.. Traditional live streaming protocols use unicast transmission, an inefficient and bandwidth intensive architecture that requires a dedicated HTTP session for every subscriber. In contrast, Qwilt Live Stream Cache quickly and efficiently identifies trending and popular live OTT video streams, enabling the QB-Series to instantly direct those streams into the controller's FastCache, a dedicated control and storage path optimized for quick delivery of live streams. The Qwilt Live Stream Cache then establishes a local live video transmission point in each neighborhood that can serve a very large population of nearby subscribers using a single seed stream, offloading significant strain on operator network infrastructures".

See "Qwilt Unveils Industry’s First Transparent Caching Solution for Live Video Streaming" - here.

Cache Deployments [278]: Toyama [Japan] Selected Qwilt - "achieving nearly 50% efficiency"

Qwilt's CEO expectations for "Full-Scale Deployments in Japan and Korea During 2013" [here] are coming through.

The transparent caching solution vendor [see "[Vendor Review] Qwilt: 'We can Save US Operators Hundreds of $Millions in Few Years'" - here] announced that "..Cable Television Toyama, a cable network operator in Japan, has selected and deployed its Qwilt Video Fabric Controller, achieving nearly 50-percent transparent caching efficiency for over the top (OTT) video, with a 2x improvement in quality of experience (QoE) for its subscribers. Systems integrator IT Frontier (ITF), a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, managed the implementation. 

Cable Television Toyama's subscribers consume various types of OTT broadband traffic. From popular online video content sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion to software updates like the recent iOS7 update from Apple, their network was experiencing strain due to increasing traffic and demand".

See "Cable Television Toyama Improves Quality of Online Video Delivery with Qwilt Video Fabric Deployment" - here.

Qwilt: Our Customers See 50% Cache Hit, 80% QoE Improvement

Qwilt reported ".. new Worldwide Online Video Quality of Experience (QoE) data, compiled from analytic network performance insights from its global customer deployments. In its first annual report, the company measured the average bitrate of customer networks across North America [customers include Mediacom and Comway], South America, Europe and Asia, to determine actual viewer QoE during peak viewing times, from popular content providers, like Netflix and YouTube. 

.. average bitrates were measured from video streams delivered by Qwilt and those delivered by upstream content providers. The comparison of the two average bit rates shows the real QoE impact of Qwilt’s solution in operator networks. The report data conclusively shows that Qwilt’s transparent caching solution, the QB-Series Video Fabric Controller [see "Qwilt Unveils Transparent-video Delivery Solution" - here], consistently delivered more than 50-percent of the video traffic while producing greater than 80-percent improvement in video streaming QoE during peak times".

See "New Worldwide Online Video QoE Report Shows Qwilt Delivers Over 80% Improvement in Consumer Quality of Experience During Prime Time" - here.

Cache Deployments [266]: Mediacom [US] Deployed Qwilt

 

Qwilt announced that "Mediacom Communications Corporation, a major cable network operator in the United States, has deployed Qwilt’s online video delivery solution"

Related post - "[Vendor Review] Qwilt: "We can Save US Operators Hundreds of $Millions in Few Years" - here.

Mediacom (see also "Ad-Insertion is back - Spotted at Mediacom" - here) is the is US' eighth largest cable television company (or #12 according to NCTA - here, with 1M video subscribers), and serves over 1,500 communities in the US. It offers 5 Internet plans ranging between 3-105Mbps and usage cap of 150-999 GB.

  

JR Walden [pictured], SVP technology, Mediacom Communications Corporation “As a major cable operator, we need a cost-effective way to extend our network infrastructure, while improving the quality of viewing experience”.

See "Mediacom Selects Qwilt for Online Video Delivery and Improved Quality of Experience for Subscribers" - here.