Boosting Terrestrial CDNs
Cidera also uses satellite delivery to push terrestrial CDN content to ISP POPs. "For example, suppose Akamai is contracted by CNN," said Iyer. "Akamai will feed CNN's streaming content to Cidera's uplink. Cidera broadcasts this stream to Akamai POPs, where that stream becomes available to end users."

In this scenario, the ISP must have Akamai edge servers. However, Cidera is creating similar partnerships with other CDN operators. Today, Cidera also transports Digital Island's Footprint Live streaming media service, Intel's Internet Media service, and RoadRunner traffic.

"Cidera is working with CDN operators to cross-connect their locations," said Iyer. "For example, we are working to add Cidera to Akamai POPs that lack satellite delivery, and to add Akamai to Cidera POPs that currently operate without Akamai."

Cidera markets its Streaming Media broadcast service to content providers, aggregators, and distributors. For example, when the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences webcast a conference keynote by Martha Stewart, producer Fresh Baked Studios hired Cidera to transport the Webcast Cidera service adapters are content-agnostic; they can carry native IP multicast, RealSystem G2, Apple QuickTime, and Microsoft Windows Media streams. Encoded streams delivered to Cidera's Master Controller at the uplink are broadcast to ISP media servers at each downlink.

Hybrid network fills in the cracks
Cidera's Internet Broadcast Backbone is really a hybrid involving both satellite and terrestrial networks. In addition to receiving satellite broadcasts at speeds up to 45 Mbps, every Cidera service adapter is connected to the terrestrial Internet. Terrestrial links transport overhead traffic (e.g., remote management, DNS resolution) and are used to ensure reliable content delivery.

"For example, suppose you move a very large file like the FBI fingerprint database to law enforcement offices worldwide," said Iyer. "Cidera's Big File Mover service guarantees that this file will be pushed over satellite to POPs with 100 percent accuracy."

The ISP play
According to former COO Bob Margraff, Cidera has two distinct kinds of customers: ISPs and CDNs. "ISPs install our Usenet News and Cache Turbocharging services, and this has been what drives our footprint," said Margraff. Although Cidera is expanding into Latin America and Asia, today's installed base covers primarily the United States and Western Europe.

ISPs accounted for all of Cidera's revenue in 1999. According to Satcoms Insider, "The economies of using satellite become more favorable the further the ISP is from the core of the Internet (the USA) because fibre costs are a function of the length of the fibre links. Satellites are distance insensitive when it comes to transmission costs. The satellite-caching model also offers a form of bypass to monopoly PTT control of fibre. Nevertheless, as fibre becomes ubiquitous and the cost of fibre capacity halves every ten months…the proponents of satellite caching are chasing a potentially receding marketplace."

These market factors, and the growing popularity of terrestrial CDNs, lead Cidera to launch partnerships with Akamai and Digital Island in mid-2000. "When CDNs sell Cidera to their own ISP partners, we derive revenue from the CDN operator, who in turn derives revenue from content providers," said Margraff. In short, Cidera benefits from complementing, not competing with, terrestrial CDNs.

Cidera isn't shy about competing with other satellite network operators like Loral and iBeam. "When ISPs put in a Loral dish, they get only Akamai," said Margraff. "When an ISP installs a Cidera dish, they're in a position to receive feeds from multiple CDNs." Cidera differentiates itself from iBeam by citing its ability to deliver more than streaming media, its global footprint, its focus on infrastructure rather than content aggregation, its operations experience, and its ISP heritage.

"Many of our competitors originate from the content and broadcasting world," said Iyer. "Cidera is fundamentally an ISP company. Our founder and many of our employees came from Digex. We're able to understand ISP needs and think of new services that would be valuable to them. And we're able to do so while appreciating the cost pressures that ISPs operate under."

ISP customers like BroadView's Carey and Graves seem to agree. Cidera isn't the only operator offering satellite content delivery. In fact, BroadView also installed iBeam, a streaming service we'll cover in part two of this series. But the numbers are quite compelling: ISPs can save bucks by using Cidera to shift traffic from earth to sky.

< Back to page 1: Cidera's Internet Broadcast Backbone

—End