Case 6:19-cv-00716-ADA Document 28-8 Filed 03/30/20 Page 1 of 5
`
`EXHIBIT G
`
`BBITV117687
`
`BBiTV EX2045
`DISH v. BBiTV
`IPR2020-01267
`
`0001
`
`

`

`3/10/2020
`
`Case 6:19-cv-00716-ADA.Docum M28.8voFile€1,02180/201 Page 2 of 5
`
`Multichannel News
`
`HOME > NEWS > DISTRIBUTION > CABLE OPERATORS
`
`Comcast's Road to 20 Billion VOD Views
`
`BY TODD SPANGLER • UPDATED: MAR 29, 2018 • ORIGINAL: AUG 10, 2011
`
`Three years ago, Comcast was delivering
`video-on-demand essentially the same way McDonald's
`serves burgers or Starbucks whips up lattes: locally, out of dozens
`of locations across the U.S.
`
`The operator had to shift to a centrally
`managed, hierarchical distribution
`model after deciding it wanted to
`give subscribers access to tens of thousands
`of VOD selections — with a vision
`of hitting 100,000 and beyond.
`
`Back in January 2008, Comcast CEO
`Brian Roberts outlined "Project Infinity"
`in a keynote at the Consumer Electronics
`Show. Among his promises: 1,000 high-definition titles on-demand by the end of
`the year, and eventually a virtually limitless
`selection of video entertainment.
`
`Meeting that initial target required
`some heavy lifting, given the isolated nature
`of Comcast's VOD infrastructure at
`the time. "That was about adding more
`storage in literally 130 locations to get to
`1,000 HD choices: John Schanz, Comcast
`executive vice president of national engineering
`and technical operations, said.
`
`Today, the operator's distributed VOD architecture looks
`similar to an Internet content delivery network, or CDN. Like
`its Internet counterparts, the Comcast CDN for video, dubbed
`CCDN internally, stores all content on large-scale "library servers"
`and stores cached copies closer to subscribers based on
`the popularity of the content.
`
`'WORK AS A TEAM'
`
`https://www.mult channel.com/news/comcast-s-road-20-billion-vod-views-327466
`
`1/4
`
`BBITV117688
`
`0002
`
`

`

`3/10/2020
`
`Case 6:19-cv-00716-ADA.Docuna M28.8voFile€1,02180/201 Page 3 of 5
`The project involved linking those 130 "islands" of VOD servers,
`now down to about 90, into a nationwide network fed
`by the library servers in four regional locations. In the middle
`are about 100 mezzanine gateways that cache VOD assets
`and manage the content that is distributed to the edge servers.
`
`"We have unified those islands in a single operating platform,
`monitored in our network-operations center," Comcast
`senior vice president of product engineering Mark Muehl said.
`"We have taught them to work as a team:'
`
`Most of the CDDN upgrade was executed without downtime.
`About 10% of the work required taking VOD servers offline, which was done in early-morning service windows to
`minimize the disruption for customers.
`
`The CCDN project has been like "literally rebuilding an aircraft
`carrier as it's landing planes: Muehl said.
`
`Schanz added: "Sometimes, in deploying a new technology,
`you are forgiven with low usage in a greenfield environment.
`But we were stepping into the highest-scale VOD environment
`in the world:'
`
`Comcast now offers 30,000 VOD choices in
`markets served by the CCDN, compared with
`740 when it first launched video-on-demand
`service in 2003. The CCDN serves about 80%
`of the operator's footprint.
`
`The architecture has helped push up the
`amount of content subscribers watch —
`Comcast announced in May that it had surpassed
`20 billion VOD sessions to date.
`Moreover, with additional content and better
`search features, Comcast subscribers are
`watching a greater variety of content.
`
`"We're seeing a longer tair Muehl said.
`
`And the CCDN architecture is "horizontally
`scalable: Muehl said, meaning it really is capable
`of delivering an ever-expanding number
`of videos as long as there's enough bandwidth
`and storage to deliver them.
`
`"As we add more content to the library, there
`are different parts of the service we need to
`scale up: he
`said. "In some sense, this is a
`living organism:'
`
`NEXT-DAY DELIVERY
`
`https://www.mult channel.com/news/comcast-s-road-20-billion-vod-views-327466
`
`2/4
`
`BBITV117689
`
`0003
`
`

`

`3/10/2020
`
`Case 6:19-cv-00716-ADA.Docuna nb28.8voFile€1,02180/201 Page 4 of 5
`The centralized nature of the
`CCDN has allowed the operator
`to update VOD content
`more quickly. For example,
`Comcast now offers TV episodes
`of popular shows from
`the four major broadcasters the
`day after they air, after reaching
`deals with Fox and ABC
`earlier this spring.
`
`The CCDN also enabled
`Comcast's launch of dynamic
`VOD ad insertion this summer
`in 17 markets, representing
`about 7.4 million subscribers, by
`providing a centralized means
`to distribute the ad assets.
`
`Comcast declined to specify the vendors of the hardware
`and software it used to build the CCDN. Schanz noted, however,
`that the VOD back-end is based on multivendor, open
`standards.
`
`Cisco Systems is now Comcast's primary VOD server vendor,
`according to several industry sources. The operator has
`removed SeaChange International's VOD servers from the
`production environment because they did not fit well into the
`hierarchical CCDN architecture, but Comcast still uses the
`vendor's back-end management software, sources said.
`
`SeaChange declined to comment except to say the company
`continues to have a very strong relationship with Comcast,
`particularly for software and the associated hardware:'
`
`Another component of Comcast's revamped VOD service
`is the UDB — the Universal Database. That software
`provides a comprehensive catalog of all on-demand assets,
`with the associated metadata.
`
`Comcast publishes information about individual VOD assets
`once, and that metadata is distributed to about 100 UDB
`servers around the country.
`
`When a Comcast customer navigates through the VOD
`
`menu on TV, or does a search for shows or movies on XfinityTV.com or the iPad and iPhone apps, the query is handled by
`
`one of those UDB servers. The Universal Database system processes
`200 million menu navigations daily, Muehl said.
`
`The UDB software was developed by Comcast, whereas
`the operator worked with
`various vendors for the hierarchical
`caching and content
`management functions
`of the CCDN.
`
`https://www.mult channel.com/news/comcast-s-road-20-billion-vod-views-327466
`
`3/4
`
`BBITV117690
`
`0004
`
`

`

`3/10/2020
`
`Case 6:19-cv-00716-ADA.Docuna nb28.8voFile€1,02180/201 Page 5 of 5
`The CCDN's first application
`is video-on-demand, but
`Comcast execs said it could be
`extended to others, such as a
`network-based digital video
`recorder service. The MSO expects
`to conduct a small test of
`the network DVR concept this
`year but has not announced
`any commercial plans for
`such a service.
`
`"It's a platform: Schanz
`said of the CCDN. "It's optimized
`for video, and ultimately
`I think of it as our
`platform for anything time-shifted:'
`
`BACK END OF INFINITY
`
`Details on the Comcast CDN:
`
`Architecture: All VOD content stored in library servers
`at four regional data centers, with the most popular
`titles cached on edge servers in 90 locations.
`
`Library server locations: Philadelphia, Atlanta,
`Chicago and San Francisco
`
`Storage: 150 Terabytes of usable disk space in each
`library server (enough to hold roughly 64,000 hours
`of SD or 16,000 hours of HD MPEG-2 video).
`
`Video-on-demand lineup: 30,000 titles in CCDN-enabled
`markets.
`
`Deployment Just over 80% of Comcast's footprint.
`
`SOURCE: Comcast
`
`Do Not Sell My Info
`
`https://www.mult channel.com/news/comcast-s-road-20-billion-vod-views-327466
`
`4/4
`
`BBITV117691
`
`0005
`
`