Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                  G. Bertrand, Ed.
Request for Comments: 6770                                    E. Stephan
Obsoletes: 3570                                  France Telecom - Orange
Category: Informational                                     T. Burbridge
ISSN: 2070-1721                                               P. Eardley
                                                                     BT
                                                                  K. Ma
                                                    Azuki Systems, Inc.
                                                              G. Watson
                                               Alcatel-Lucent (Velocix)
                                                          November 2012


        Use Cases for Content Delivery Network Interconnection

Abstract

  Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are commonly used for improving the
  End User experience of a content delivery service while keeping cost
  at a reasonable level.  This document focuses on use cases that
  correspond to identified industry needs and that are expected to be
  realized once open interfaces and protocols supporting the
  interconnection of CDNs are specified and implemented.  This document
  can be used to motivate the definition of the requirements to be
  supported by CDN Interconnection (CDNI) interfaces.  It obsoletes RFC
  3570.

Status of This Memo

  This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
  published for informational purposes.

  This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
  (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
  received public review and has been approved for publication by the
  Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
  approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
  Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

  Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
  and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
  http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6770.









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Copyright Notice

  Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
  document authors.  All rights reserved.

  This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
  Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
  (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
  publication of this document.  Please review these documents
  carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
  to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
  include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
  the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
  described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

  1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
    1.1.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
    1.2.  Abbreviations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
    1.3.  Rationale for CDN Interconnection  . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
  2.  Footprint Extension Use Cases  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    2.1.  Geographic Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    2.2.  Inter-Affiliates Interconnection . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    2.3.  ISP Handling of Third-Party Content  . . . . . . . . . . .  7
    2.4.  Nomadic Users  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
  3.  Offload Use Cases  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
    3.1.  Overload Handling and Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
    3.2.  Resiliency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
      3.2.1.  Failure of Content Delivery Resources  . . . . . . . .  9
      3.2.2.  Content Acquisition Resiliency . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  4.  Capability Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
    4.1.  Device and Network Technology Extension  . . . . . . . . . 11
    4.2.  Technology and Vendor Interoperability . . . . . . . . . . 12
    4.3.  QoE and QoS Improvement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  5.  Enforcement of Content Delivery Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  6.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  8.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
    8.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
    8.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  Appendix A.  Content Service Providers' Delivery Policies  . . . . 14
    A.1.  Content Delivery Policy Enforcement  . . . . . . . . . . . 14
    A.2.  Secure Access  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
    A.3.  Branding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15






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1.  Introduction

  Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are commonly used for improving the
  End User experience of a content delivery service while keeping cost
  at a reasonable level.  This document focuses on use cases that
  correspond to identified industry needs and that are expected to be
  realized once open interfaces and protocols supporting the
  interconnection of CDNs are specified and implemented.  The document
  can be used to motivate the definition of the requirements (as
  documented in [CDNI-REQ]) to be supported by the set of CDN
  Interconnection (CDNI) interfaces defined in [RFC6707].

  [RFC3570] describes slightly different terminologies and models for
  "Content Internetworking (CDI)".  This document obsoletes RFC 3570 to
  avoid confusion.

  This document identifies the main motivations for a CDN Provider to
  interconnect its CDN:

  o  CDN Footprint Extension Use Cases (Section 2)

  o  CDN Offload Use Cases (Section 3)

  o  CDN Capability Use Cases (Section 4)

  Then, the document highlights the need for interoperability in order
  to exchange and enforce content delivery policies (Section 5).

1.1.  Terminology

  In this document, the first letter of each CDNI-specific term is
  capitalized.  We adopt the terminology described in [RFC6707].

  We extend this terminology with the following term:

  Access CDN:

  A CDN that includes Surrogates in the same administrative network as
  the End User.  Such a CDN can use accurate information on the End
  User's network context to provide additional Content Delivery
  Services to Content Service Providers.

1.2.  Abbreviations

  o  CDN: Content Delivery Network, also known as Content Distribution
     Network

  o  CSP: Content Service Provider



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  o  dCDN: downstream CDN

  o  DNS: Domain Name System

  o  EU: End User

  o  ISP: Internet Service Provider

  o  NSP: Network Service Provider

  o  QoE: Quality of Experience

  o  QoS: Quality of Service

  o  uCDN: upstream CDN

  o  URL: Uniform Resource Locator

  o  WiFi: Wireless local area network (WLAN) based on IEEE 802.11

1.3.  Rationale for CDN Interconnection

  Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are used to deliver content because
  they can:

  o  improve the experience for the End User; for instance delivery has
     lower latency (decreased round-trip-time and higher throughput
     between the user and the delivery server) and better robustness
     (ability to use multiple delivery servers),

  o  reduce the network operator's costs; for instance, lower delivery
     cost (reduced bandwidth usage) for cacheable content,

  o  reduce the Content Service Provider's (CSP) internal
     infrastructure costs, such as data center capacity, space, and
     electricity consumption, as popular content is delivered
     externally through the CDN rather than through the CSP's own
     servers.

  Indeed, many Network Service Providers (NSPs) and Enterprise Service
  Providers are deploying or have deployed their own CDNs.  Despite the
  potential benefits of interconnecting CDNs, today each CDN is a
  stand-alone network.  The objective of CDN Interconnection is to
  overcome this restriction; the interconnected CDNs should be able to
  collectively behave as a single delivery infrastructure.

  An example is depicted in Figure 1, where two CDN Providers establish
  a CDN Interconnection.  The Content Service Provider CSP-1 reaches an



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  agreement with CDN Provider 'A' for the delivery of its content.
  Independently, CDN Provider 'A' and CDN Provider 'B' agree to
  interconnect their CDNs.

  When a given User Agent requests content from CSP-1, CDN-A may
  consider that delivery by CDN-B is appropriate, for instance, because
  CDN-B is an Access CDN and the user is directly attached to it.
  Through the CDN Interconnection arrangements put in place between
  CDN-A and CDN-B (as a result of the CDN Interconnection agreement
  established between CDN Provider 'A' and CDN Provider 'B'), CDN-A can
  redirect the request to CDN-B and the content is actually delivered
  to the User Agent by CDN-B.

  The End User benefits from this arrangement through a better Quality
  of Experience (QoE, see [RFC6390]), because the content is delivered
  from a nearby Surrogate (e.g., lower latency, bottlenecks avoided).
  CDN Provider 'A' benefits because it does not need to deploy such an
  extensive CDN, while CDN Provider 'B' may receive some compensation
  for the delivery.  CSP-1 benefits because it only needs to make one
  business agreement and one technical arrangement with CDN Provider
  'A', but its End Users get a service quality as though CSP-1 had also
  gone to the trouble of making a business agreement and technical
  arrangement with CDN Provider 'B'.

   +-------+ +-------+
   | CSP-1 | | CSP-2 |
   +-------+ +-------+
       |         |
      ,--,--,--./            ,--,--,--.
   ,-'          `-.       ,-'          `-.
  (CDN Provider 'A')=====(CDN Provider 'B')
   `-.  (CDN-A) ,-'       `-. (CDN-B)  ,-'
      `--'--'--'             `--'--'--'
                                 |
                           +----------+
                           | End User |
                           +----------+
   === CDN Interconnection

                                Figure 1

  To extend the example, another Content Service Provider, CSP-2, may
  also reach an agreement with CDN Provider 'A'.  However, CSP-2 may
  not want its content to be distributed by CDN Provider B; for
  example, CSP-2 may not want to distribute its content in the area
  where CDN Provider 'B' operates.  This example illustrates that
  policy considerations are an important part of CDNI.




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2.  Footprint Extension Use Cases

  Footprint extension is expected to be a major use case for CDN
  Interconnection.

2.1.  Geographic Extension

  In this use case, the CDN Provider wants to extend the geographic
  distribution that it can offer to its CSPs:

  o  without compromising the quality of delivery.

  o  without incurring additional transit and other network costs that
     would result from serving content from geographically or
     topologically remote Surrogates.

  o  without incurring the cost of deploying and operating Surrogates
     and the associated CDN infrastructure that may not be justified in
     the corresponding geographic region (e.g., because of relatively
     low delivery volume, or conversely because of the high investments
     that would be needed to satisfy the high volume).

  If there are several CDN Providers that have a geographically limited
  footprint (e.g., restricted to one country), or do not serve all End
  Users in a geographic area, then interconnecting their CDNs enables
  these CDN Providers to provide their services beyond their own
  footprint.

  As an example, suppose a French CSP wants to distribute its TV
  programs to End Users located in France and various countries in
  North Africa.  It asks a French CDN Provider to deliver the content.
  The French CDN Provider's network only covers France, so it makes an
  agreement with another CDN Provider that covers North Africa.
  Overall, from the CSP's perspective, the French CDN Provider provides
  a CDN service for both France and North Africa.

  In addition to video, this use case applies to other types of content
  such as automatic software updates (browser updates, operating system
  patches, virus database update, etc.).

2.2.  Inter-Affiliates Interconnection

  The previous section describes the case of geographic extension
  between CDNs operated by different entities.  A large CDN Provider
  may have several subsidiaries that each operate their own CDN (which
  may rely on different CDN technologies, see Section 4.2).  In certain





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  circumstances, the CDN Provider needs to make these CDNs interoperate
  to provide consistent service to its customers on the whole
  collective footprint.

2.3.  ISP Handling of Third-Party Content

  Consider an ISP carrying to its subscribers a lot of content that
  comes from a third-party CSP and that is injected into the ISP's
  network by an Authoritative CDN Provider.  There are mutual benefits
  to the ISP (acting as an Access CDN), the Authoritative CDN, and the
  CSP that would make a case for establishing a CDNI agreement.  For
  example:

  o  allowing the CSP to offer improved QoE and QoE services to
     subscribers, for example, reduced content startup time or
     increased video quality and resolution of adaptive streaming
     content.

  o  allowing the Authoritative CDN to reduce hardware capacity and
     footprint, by using the ISP caching and delivery capacity.

  o  allowing the ISP to reduce traffic load on some segments of the
     network by caching inside of the ISP network.

  o  allowing the ISP to influence and/or control the traffic ingress
     points.

  o  allowing the ISP to derive some incremental revenue for transport
     of the traffic and to monetize QoE services.

2.4.  Nomadic Users

  In this scenario, a CSP wishes to allow End Users who move between
  access networks to continue to access their content.  The motivation
  of this case is to allow nomadic End Users to maintain access to
  content with a consistent QoE across a range of devices and/or
  geographic regions.

  This use case covers situations like:

  o  End Users moving between different access networks, which may be
     located within the same geographic region or different geographic
     regions.

  o  End Users switching between different devices or delivery
     technologies, as discussed in Section 4.





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  Consider the following example, illustrated in Figure 2: End User A
  has a subscription to a broadband service from ISP A, her "home ISP".
  ISP A hosts CDN-A.  Ordinarily, when End User A accesses content via
  ISP A (her "home ISP"), the content is delivered from CDN-A, which in
  this example is within ISP A's network.

  However, while End User A is not connected to ISP A's network, for
  example, because it is connected to a WiFi provider or mobile
  network, End User A can also access the same content.  In this case,
  End User A may benefit from accessing the same content delivered by
  an alternate CDN (CDN-B), in this case, hosted in the network of the
  WiFi or mobile provider (ISP B), rather than from CDN-A in ISP A's
  network.

      +-------+
      |Content|
      +-------+
          |
      ,--,--,--.             ,--,--,--.
   ,-'  ISP A   `-.       ,-'  ISP B   `-.
  (    (CDN-A)     )=====(    (CDN-B)     )
   `-.          ,-'       `-.          ,-'
      `--'--'--'             `--'--'--'
           |                     |
     +------------+      +---------------+
     + EU A (home)|      | EU A (nomadic)|
     +------------+      +---------------+
   === CDN Interconnection

                                Figure 2

  Though the content of CSP A is not accessible by typical End Users of
  CDN-B, End User A is able to gain access to her "home" content (i.e.,
  the content of CSP A) through the alternate CDN (CDN-B).

  Depending on the CSP's content delivery policies (see Appendix A.1),
  a user moving to a different geographic region may be subject to geo-
  blocking content delivery restrictions.  In this case, he/she may not
  be allowed to access some pieces of content.

3.  Offload Use Cases

3.1.  Overload Handling and Dimensioning

  A CDN is likely to be dimensioned to support an expected maximum
  traffic load.  However, unexpected spikes in content popularity
  (flash crowd) may drive load beyond the expected peak.  The prime
  recurrent time peaks of content distribution may differ between two



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  CDNs.  Taking advantage of the different traffic peak times, a CDN
  may interconnect with another CDN to increase its effective capacity
  during the peak of traffic.  This brings dimensioning savings to the
  CDNs, as they can use each other's resources during their respective
  peaks of activity.

  Offload also applies to planned situations in which a CDN Provider
  needs CDN capacity in a particular region during a short period of
  time.  For example, a CDN can offload traffic to another CDN for the
  duration of a specific maintenance operation or for the distribution
  of a special event, as in the scenario depicted in Figure 3.  For
  instance, consider a TV channel that is the distributor for a major
  event, such as a celebrity's wedding or a major sport competition,
  and this TV channel has contracted particular CDNs for the delivery.
  The CDNs (CDN-A and CDN-B) that the TV channel uses for delivering
  the content related to this event are likely to experience a flash
  crowd during the event and will need to offload traffic, while other
  CDNs (CDN-C) will support a more typical traffic load and be able to
  handle the offloaded traffic.

  In this use case, the Delivering CDN on which requests are offloaded
  should be able to handle the offloaded requests.  Therefore, the uCDN
  might require information on the dCDNs to be aware of the amount of
  traffic it can offload to each dCDN.

    +------------+
    | TV Channel |
    +------------+
        |         \
     ,-,--,-.      \ ,-,--,-.        ,-,--,-.
   ,'        `.    ,'        `.    ,' CDN-C  `.
  (   CDN-A    )  (   CDN-B    )==(  offload   )
   `.        ,'    `.        ,'    `.        ,'
     `-'--'-'        `-'--'-'        `-'--'-'

   === CDN Interconnection

                                Figure 3

3.2.  Resiliency

3.2.1.  Failure of Content Delivery Resources

  It is important for CDNs to be able to guarantee service continuity
  during partial failures (e.g., failure of some Surrogates).  In
  partial failure scenarios, a CDN Provider has at least three options:





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  1.  if possible, use internal mechanisms to redirect traffic onto
      surviving equipment,

  2.  depending on traffic management policies, forward some requests
      to the CSP's origin servers, and/or

  3.  redirect some requests toward another CDN, which must be able to
      serve the redirected requests.

  The last option is a use case for CDNI.

3.2.2.  Content Acquisition Resiliency

  Source content acquisition may be handled in one of two ways:

  o  CSP origin, where a CDN acquires content directly from the CSP's
     origin server, or

  o  CDN origin, where a downstream CDN acquires content from a
     Surrogate within an upstream CDN.

  The ability to support content acquisition resiliency is an important
  use case for interconnected CDNs.  When the content acquisition
  source fails, the CDN might switch to another content acquisition
  source.  Similarly, when several content acquisition sources are
  available, a CDN might balance the load between these multiple
  sources.

  Though other server and/or DNS load-balancing techniques may be
  employed in the network, interconnected CDNs may have a better
  understanding of origin-server availability, and be better equipped
  to both distribute load between origin servers and attempt content
  acquisition from alternate content sources when acquisition failures
  occur.  When normal content acquisition fails, a CDN may need to try
  other content source options, for example:

  o  an upstream CDN may acquire content from an alternate CSP origin
     server,

  o  a downstream CDN may acquire content from an alternate Surrogate
     within an upstream CDN,

  o  a downstream CDN may acquire content from an alternate upstream
     CDN, or

  o  a downstream CDN may acquire content directly from the CSP's
     origin server.




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  Though content acquisition protocols are beyond the scope of CDNI,
  the selection of content acquisition sources should be considered and
  facilitated.

4.  Capability Use Cases

4.1.  Device and Network Technology Extension

  In this use case, the CDN Provider may have the right geographic
  footprint, but may wish to extend the supported range of devices and
  User Agents or the supported range of delivery technologies.  In this
  case, a CDN Provider may interconnect with a CDN that offers services
  that:

  o  the CDN Provider is not willing to provide, or

  o  its own CDN is not able to support.

  The following examples illustrate this use case:

  1.  CDN-A cannot support a specific delivery protocol.  For instance,
      CDN-A may interconnect with CDN-B to serve a proportion of its
      traffic that requires HTTPS [RFC2818].  CDN-A may use CDN-B's
      footprint (which may overlap with its own) to deliver HTTPS
      without needing to deploy its own infrastructure.  This case
      could also be true of other formats, delivery protocols (e.g.,
      the Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), the Real Time Streaming
      Protocol (RTSP), etc.), and features (specific forms of
      authorization such as tokens, per session encryption, etc.).

  2.  CDN-A has a footprint covering traditional fixed-line broadband
      and wants to extend coverage to mobile devices.  In this case,
      CDN-A may contract and interconnect with CDN-B, who has both:

      *  a physical footprint inside the mobile network,

      *  the ability to deliver content over a protocol that is
         required by specific mobile devices.

  3.  CDN-A only supports IPv4 within its infrastructure but wants to
      deliver content over IPv6.  CDN-B supports both IPv4 and IPv6
      within its infrastructure.  CDN-A interconnects with CDN-B to
      serve out its content over native IPv6 connections.

  These cases can apply to many CDN features that a given CDN Provider
  may not be able to support or not be willing to invest in, and thus,
  that the CDN Provider would delegate to another CDN.




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4.2.  Technology and Vendor Interoperability

  A CDN Provider may deploy a new CDN to run alongside its existing CDN
  as a simple way of migrating its CDN service to a new technology.  In
  addition, a CDN Provider may have a multi-vendor strategy for its CDN
  deployment.  Finally, a CDN Provider may want to deploy a separate
  CDN for a particular CSP or a specific network.  In all these
  circumstances, CDNI benefits the CDN Provider, as it simplifies or
  automates some inter-CDN operations (e.g., migrating the request
  routing function progressively).

4.3.  QoE and QoS Improvement

  Some CSPs are willing to pay a premium for enhanced delivery of
  content to their End Users.  In some cases, even if the CDN Provider
  could deliver the content to the End Users, it would not meet the
  CSP's service-level requirements.  As a result, the CDN Provider may
  establish a CDN Interconnection agreement with another CDN Provider
  that can provide the expected QoE to the End User, e.g., via an
  Access CDN that is able to deliver content from Surrogates located
  closer to the End User and with the required service level.

5.  Enforcement of Content Delivery Policy

  An important aspect common to all the above use cases is that CSPs
  typically want to enforce content delivery policies.  A CSP may want
  to define content delivery policies that specify when, how, and/or to
  whom the CDN delivers content.  These policies apply to all
  interconnected CDNs (uCDNs and dCDNs) in the same or similar way that
  a CSP can define content delivery policies for content delivered by a
  single, non-interconnected CDN.  Appendix A provides examples of CSP-
  defined policies.

6.  Acknowledgments

  The authors would like to thank Kent Leung, Francois Le Faucheur, Ben
  Niven-Jenkins, and Scott Wainner for lively discussions, as well as
  for their reviews and comments on the mailing list.

  They also thank the contributors of the EU FP7 OCEAN and ETICS
  projects for valuable inputs.

  Finally, the authors acknowledge the work of the former CDI working
  group.  This document obsoletes [RFC3570] to avoid confusion.







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7.  Security Considerations

  This document focuses on the motivational use cases for CDN
  Interconnection and does not analyze the associated threats.  Those
  threats are discussed in [RFC6707].  Appendix A.2 of this document
  provides example security policies that CSPs might impose on CDNs to
  mitigate the threats.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

  [RFC6707]   Niven-Jenkins, B., Le Faucheur, F., and N. Bitar,
              "Content Distribution Network Interconnection (CDNI)
              Problem Statement", RFC 6707, September 2012.

8.2.  Informative References

  [CDNI-REQ]  Leung, K. and Y. Lee, "Content Distribution Network
              Interconnection (CDNI) Requirements", Work in Progress,
              June 2012.

  [RFC2818]   Rescorla, E., "HTTP Over TLS", RFC 2818, May 2000.

  [RFC3570]   Rzewski, P., Day, M., and D. Gilletti, "Content
              Internetworking (CDI) Scenarios", RFC 3570, July 2003.

  [RFC6390]   Clark, A. and B. Claise, "Guidelines for Considering New
              Performance Metric Development", BCP 170, RFC 6390,
              October 2011.





















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Appendix A.  Content Service Providers' Delivery Policies

  CSPs commonly apply different delivery policies to given sets of
  content assets delivered through CDNs.  Interconnected CDNs need to
  support these policies.  This appendix presents examples of CSPs'
  delivery policies and their consequences on CDNI operations.

A.1.  Content Delivery Policy Enforcement

  The content distribution policies that a CSP attaches to a content
  asset may depend on many criteria.  For instance, distribution
  policies for audiovisual content often combine constraints of varying
  levels of complexity and sophistication, for example:

  o  temporal constraints (e.g., available for 24 hours, available 28
     days after DVD release, etc.),

  o  user agent platform constraints (e.g., mobile device platforms,
     desktop computer platforms, set-top-box platforms, etc.),

  o  resolution-based constraints (e.g., high definition vs. standard
     definition encodings),

  o  user agent identification or authorization,

  o  access network constraints (e.g., per NSP), and

  o  IP geo-blocking constraints (e.g., for a given coverage area).

  CSPs may use sophisticated policies in accordance with their business
  model.  However, the enforcement of those policies does not
  necessarily require that the delivery network understand the policy
  rationales or how policies apply to specific content assets.  Content
  delivery policies may be distilled into simple rules that can be
  commonly enforced across all dCDNs.  These rules may influence dCDN
  delegation and Surrogate selection decisions, for instance, to ensure
  that the specific rules (e.g., time-window, geo-blocking, pre-
  authorization validation) can indeed be enforced by the Delivering
  CDN.  In turn, this can guarantee to the CSP that content delivery
  policies are properly applied.











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  +-----+
  | CSP |  Policies driven by business (e.g., available only
  +-----+  in the UK and only from July 1st to September 1st)
     \
      \ Translate policies into
       \simple rules (e.g., provide an authorization token)
        \
         V
       +-----+
       | CDN | Apply simple rules (e.g., check an
       +-----+ authorization token and enforce geo-blocking)
           \
            \ Distribute simple rules
             V
           +-----+
           | CDN | Apply simple rules
           +-----+

                                Figure 4

A.2.  Secure Access

  Many protocols exist for delivering content to End Users.  CSPs may
  dictate a specific protocol or set of protocols that are acceptable
  for delivery of their content, especially in the case where a secured
  content transmission is required (e.g., must use HTTPS).  CSPs may
  also perform a per-request authentication/authorization decision and
  then have the CDNs enforce that decision (e.g., must validate URL
  signing, etc.).

A.3.  Branding

  Preserving the branding of the CSP throughout delivery is often
  important to the CSP.  CSPs may desire to offer content services
  under their own name, even when the associated CDN service involves
  other CDN Providers.  For instance, a CSP may desire to ensure that
  content is delivered with URIs appearing to the End Users under the
  CSP's own domain name, even when the content delivery involves
  separate CDN Providers.  The CSP may wish to prevent the delivery of
  its content by specific dCDNs that lack support for such branding
  preservation features.

  Analogous cases exist when the uCDN wants to offer CDN services under
  its own branding even if dCDNs are involved, and so it restricts the
  delivery delegation to a chain that preserves its brand visibility.






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Authors' Addresses

  Gilles Bertrand (editor)
  France Telecom - Orange
  38-40 rue du General Leclerc
  Issy les Moulineaux,   92130
  FR
  Phone: +33 1 45 29 89 46
  EMail: [email protected]

  Stephan Emile
  France Telecom - Orange
  2 avenue Pierre Marzin
  Lannion  F-22307
  FR
  EMail: [email protected]

  Trevor Burbridge
  BT
  B54 Room 70, Adastral Park, Martlesham
  Ipswich,   IP5 3RE
  UK
  EMail: [email protected]

  Philip Eardley
  BT
  B54 Room 77, Adastral Park, Martlesham
  Ipswich,   IP5 3RE
  UK
  EMail: [email protected]

  Kevin J. Ma
  Azuki Systems, Inc.
  43 Nagog Park
  Acton, MA  01720
  USA
  Phone: +1 978-844-5100
  EMail: [email protected]

  Grant Watson
  Alcatel-Lucent (Velocix)
  3 Ely Road
  Milton, Cambridge  CB24 6AA
  UK
  EMail: [email protected]






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