back to article Boffins map Netflix's Open Connect CDN

Brit boffins have peeled back the covers of how Netflix has built its CDN, by requesting movies from all over the world and working out what the responses told them about the hosts. The research incidentally explains why the entertainment biz wants the Internet exchange (IXP) industry to trim its costs: in the USA, IXPs …

  1. Neoc

    "Hence, iipv6_1-lagg0-c002.1.lhr005.bt.isp.nflxvideo.net told the researchers they were talking to an IPv6 server; “lagg0” is one of various names used to distinguish the type of network connection; “c002” says there are two servers in the location delivering the content; lhr001 identifies the nearest airport (in this case, London Heathrow); the ISP is BT (“bt.isp”); “ix” reveals that the Netflix location in question is inside an Internet exchange; and nflxvideo.net is the common domain for all servers."

    Well, the example given by this article doesn't have a "lhr001" in it, it has a "lhr005" (although I believe that's still Heathrow). As for "ix", I have no idea where the author pulled that from the example given.

    1. Richard Chirgwin (Written by Reg staff)

      Thanks; an error on my part. There were two examples given, and I didn't notice that they weren't identical, so I'll make the relevant edit.

      Richard Chirgwin

    2. Andrew Jones 2

      I'm assuming that as the example given was bt.isp it would read some-other-identifier.ix if it was a server inside an internet exchange rather than a server inside an ISP.

  2. Tom Samplonius

    There is a regulatory issue here as well. For example, Netflix does not want to locate servers in Canada, because they worry that would place them under the jurisdiction of the CRTC. But if an ISP requests a free OpenConnect appliance, Netflix transfers the ownership of the hardware to the respective ISP. The CRTC is more effective than most national regulators at enforcing the status quo of one telephone company and one cable company.

  3. batfastad

    wow amaze

    Cower before this magnificent advance in science! What an age to be alive!

    1. firstlast1

      Re: wow amaze

      Agreed. This is not boffinry.

  4. Bitsnpieces
    Holmes

    Hmm.. according to Netflix themselves they moved their entire infrastructure to AWS in Feb this year.. so is this just a map of AWS hosts?

    1. Bob H

      They moved their processing, not their Open Connect delivery network.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    From what I've seen of numbers at one large UK ISP these numbers are wildly low, I would really take them with a pinch of salt without formal corroboration from someone who actually knows the traffic.

    Anon, because I can't tell you that officially.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Whether or not you are referring to Virginmedia, I would imagine that most VM customers would be watching Netflix via the STB and so are probably not even represented in this data so yes, it's not likely to be accurate at all in terms of the hard numbers. On the other hand, using the same measuring techniques across the whole network might be say more in terms of relative traffic levels.

  6. John 104

    Why not just ask?

  7. chris 17 Silver badge

    Is it not possible to just take a DNS snapshot or copy and query that for *.netflix.*?

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