Cost Aware Virtual Content Delivery Network for Streaming Multimedia : Cloud Based Design and Performance Analysis

Abstract: Significant portion of today’s internet traffic emerge from multimedia services. When coupled with growth in number of users accessing these services, there is tremendous increase in network traffic. CDNs aid in handling this traffic and offer reliable services by distributing content across different locations. The concept of virtualization transformed traditional data centers into flexible cloud infrastructure. With the advent of cloud computing technology, multimedia providers have scope for establishing CDN using network operator’s cloud environment. However, the main challenge while establishing such CDN is implementing a cost efficient and dynamic mechanism which guarantees good service quality to users. This thesis aims to develop, implement and assess the performance of a model that coordinates deployment of virtual servers in the cloud. A solution which dynamically spawns and releases virtual servers according to variations in user demand has been proposed. Cost-based heuristic algorithm is presented for deciding the placement of virtual servers in OpenStack based federated clouds. Further, the proposed model is implemented on XIFI cloud and its performance is measured. Results of the performance study indicate that virtual CDNs offer reliable and prompt services. With virtual CDNs, multimedia providers can regulate expenses and have greater level of flexibility for customizing the virtual servers deployed at different locations.