A video CDN is a CDN that is specifically built to provide video streams. A CDN for streaming video allows a stream to reach viewers all over the world, reduces latency and buffering time, and assures that the stream’s source or origin server is not overburdened.
While most CDNs can cache and distribute video alongside HTML, pictures, JavaScript, CSS style sheets, and other web information, video CDNs can be built specifically for video streaming. Netflix, for example, established their own distributed network called Open Connect to provide their video content more efficiently.
Reasons to use a CDN for Video
- Latency is reduced by reducing the distance between viewers.
- Streaming video follows the same technique as stated previously. The video material will load and play faster the closer it is to the viewer. A CDN’s server is likely to be closer to any given viewer than the stream’s origin.
- The origin server isn’t overloaded.
- Using a CDN’s numerous servers ensures that the server from which the stream originates is not overburdened with requests for the stream. A cluster of 200 servers is significantly more capable of broadcasting video to thousands of viewers than a single server.
- The bandwidth used by streaming content does not exceed that of the network.
- Only a specific quantity of data may move via a network at any given time. The term “bandwidth” refers to the maximum amount. When the volume of data travelling through a network exceeds the bandwidth, data delivery slows dramatically, similar to how limiting cars to one lane on a highway affects traffic. When a stream is supplied from a CDN’s various scattered servers, it is less likely that any single network will become overburdened.