Architecture
Our next-generation CDN is architected to take advantage of current technology and the realities of today's Internet. As a result, users of Panther's CDN service benefit from:
- Rapid content delivery to ensure the highest quality user experience
- A network that consistently provides both high availability and reliability
- High cache-hit ratio that improves visitors' experience while reducing origin infrastructure needs
In order to achieve these requirements, we:
- Strategically place large data centers (POPs - Points of Presence) in key locations around the world
- Leverage public Internet bandwidth across many top-tier ISPs
- Continually improve our custom, very high performance, cache server software
Larger POPs
Latency of web content delivery is dependent on two factors. First: how well the HTTP/TCP/IP protocols interact; second, the distance from the serving location. Since most Internet traffic is already served within geographic regions, the impact of distance on latency is minimal (<10 ms). Therefore, to achieve the best cache hit rates, it is best to have fewer, but larger POPs deployed. Panther's network is built upon this important fundamental concept and outperforms legacy systems based upon optimal network design.
Multiple ISPs
Leveraging public Internet bandwidth is important because it provides diversity of multiple routes rather than delivering over a single private network. We eliminate single points of failure in our network and ensure multiple routes to increase availability and performance. Panther's routing algorithms constantly monitor Internet traffic to determine the best routes for each visitor at any given time.
