Airtel Launches CDN Ahead Of 5G Roll Out; Targets Faster Content Delivery For OTT, Gaming

India’s second-largest telecommunications operator by user base, Bharti Airtel (Airtel) has forayed into the content delivery network (CDN) space by launching Edge CDN under its Edge Cloud Portfolio. The telecom company has partnered with CDN enabler Qwilt to deploy Edge CDN.

Airtel and Qwilt’s solution includes a CDN based on edge servers which bring the content closer to the users, thereby increasing the content delivery speed. The telco will look to accelerate web and video content delivery using the CDN.

In a statement, Airtel said that its focus areas would be OTT, edtech, gaming and healthcare, all mission-critical and content-intensive segments. 

The Sunil Mittal-led telco stated that Edge CDN covers 120 edge locations. It added that it is working with two OTT companies in India, but did not reveal the names.

Ajay Chitkara, director and CEO of Airtel Business, said, “Airtel has three key strengths to offer a differentiated set of cloud offerings – we have 12 large data centres and 120+ edge locations. We also have a network with comprehensive coverage across the country and to most locations across the globe. Finally, our GTM strength has direct relationships to all businesses in India small, medium or large.”

Qwilt CEO Alon Maor said, “This announcement underscores the momentum we are gathering as we realise our ambition to build the world’s highest performing edge delivery network.”

Airtel also said that it will launch cloud solutions for industries such as banking, 5G Edge, developer and hybrid cloud requirements on an immediate basis.

It is prudent to mention here that Airtel launched its data centres and cloud business, Nxtra by Airtel, last year. The company has 12 large data centres and 120 edge data centres to facilitate 5G-enabled cloud solutions, along with several high-capacity applications as mentioned above. 

While making the announcement in October last year, Airtel said that the data centres have a cumulative capacity of 120 MW. The telco has also invested around INR 5,000 Cr in its data centre business.

At the recently concluded 5G spectrum auction, Airtel was able to secure around 19,868 MHz of spectrum for 20 years for INR 43,084 Cr.

CDNs, Network Edge And Why It Matters To 5G

For the uninitiated, a content delivery network, or CDN, is a network of servers distributed across a region to distribute internet content faster.

Currently, most of the web traffic is served through CDNs, including traffic from sites such as Netflix, Facebook and Amazon. The Edge CDN will reduce latency, costs and load on servers, making it easier for OTT platforms to focus on app performance.

The edge is the part of the network with which local devices interact. There are essentially two parts of the user-facing network, the core and the edge. The two parts are connected by a series of endpoints. In that sense, the network edge is the first point of contact for a local device connecting to a network.

As such, the edge contains a wealth of data, since billions of devices are interacting with the network at the edge. Per a Seagate whitepaper, the global datasphere (the data at the network edge) will grow to 175 zettabytes (1 zettabyte = 1 Tn gigabytes).

To put that number into perspective, if we were to store the entire global datsphere by 2025 onto DVDs, the stack of DVDs would reach the Moon 23 times over.

With a wide network of edge data centres, the CDN was the next logical step for the telco to deploy. The number of devices is set to reach 50 Bn by 2025, per the Seagate report. Therefore, deploying a network of edge data centres will allow Airtel and others to deliver content faster and with low latency.

Cloud-based edge solutions can utilise the vast amount of data being generated at the edge to create meaningful insights for service providers. With 5G coming, the network edge will become more important as the number of devices connecting will shoot up. 

For that, telcos in India are deploying their network core on the cloud, to make their 5G networks more decentralised and agile. 

Airtel has created a synergy between its data centres network and its upcoming 5G network. Jio is using the same technology in its homegrown 5G stack. In essence, India’s 5G success story will depend on how telcos use the network edge.