Architecture Case Study
Streaming Media & CDN Architecture
Two architecture patterns from my CDN and media delivery work at SwiftServe and Qwilt. The first is a live OTT delivery design combining media workflow, DRM, origin protection, and CDN edge delivery. The second is a telco-scale NBA live streaming deployment in the Philippines — including normal traffic flow and multi-CDN spillover handling. Both reflect real implementation environments, not reference architectures.
Case Study 1: SwiftServe Live OTT Delivery
This design combines ingest, encoding, adaptive bitrate ladder generation, DRM packaging, origin shielding, edge delivery, and client playback into a single view. It highlights the separation between customer-owned media processing and CDN provider responsibilities.
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Highlights
- End-to-end OTT workflow from live input feed to client playback
- DRM packaging and separate license request / authentication flow
- Origin shield and distributed edge nodes for scale and latency reduction
- Access control using Geo-IP, IP restrictions, and time-based token authentication
Case Study 2: Qwilt NBA Live Streaming Delivery
This deployment supported telco-scale live OTT delivery for NBA streaming in the Philippines. It combined origin infrastructure, MPLS transport, distributed ISP edge POPs, and an overflow path to a secondary CDN. Vendor names are retained intentionally to reflect an actual implementation environment.
Main Architecture
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Normal Traffic Flow
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Spillover / Failover Flow
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Business Outcomes
- Supported high-concurrency live streaming with adaptive bitrate delivery
- Protected origin capacity through origin shielding and cache hierarchy
- Improved resilience using spillover routing to a secondary CDN provider
- Demonstrated multi-vendor integration across media, network, and CDN platforms