Frequently asked questions about the OpenCDN initiative
OpenCDN helps CDN providers reach Brazilian Internet users with low delay and high quality by lowering the barriers for installing cache servers in shared infrastructure connected to regional IX.br IXPs.
Brazil is a continental-sized market with thousands of regional ISPs. Many CDN deployments are concentrated in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza, which leaves users in other regions consuming content from distant caches through IP transit. Reaching this long tail with proper capillarity is operationally complex and often economically hard to justify through standalone deployments.
OpenCDN supports an enter deep strategy: caches can be placed closer to underserved regions, while a single deployment reaches multiple ISPs through the local IX.br IXP. The shared model reduces per-location investment and operational friction, with infrastructure operated by NIC.br, a neutral and non-profit organization.
IX.br's IXPs are present in 39 different locations, currently very well distributed throughout the Brazilian territory. About 30% of Brazilian Autonomous Systems (allocated by Registro.br) that are actively operating (present in the global BGP table) are direct participants in at least one of these locations, having an active session and announcing prefixes on their Route Servers. More than 98% of active Brazilian Autonomous Systems have their prefixes advertised in the BGP tables of the Route Servers of one or more IX.br's IXPs. In this context, distributing CDN caches in the various IXPs of IX.br, either directly or through the OpenCDN initiative, can be an excellent solution for CDNs to deploy their infrastructure in Brazil, achieving with low delay and with a minimum of intermediaries a large percentage of Brazilian AS and, consequently, of Internet users.
If you are a CDN and want to know more, please contact us by e-mail opencdn@nic.br.
Yes! OpenCDN operates in the main locations of Belo Horizonte, MG, Belém, PA, Brasília, DF, Manaus, AM, Recife, PE and Salvador, BA, with extended locations in Caruaru, PE, Feira de Santana, BA and Goiânia, GO. Campo Grande, MS is expected to join soon. If you are a CDN and want to participate, please contact us by e-mail opencdn@nic.br.
Each location provides a shared operational environment for regional CDN deployment, including local distribution through the IX.br IXP and, where applicable, connectivity support to feed caches from existing CDN infrastructure in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro or Fortaleza.
OpenCDN currently operates in the main locations of Belo Horizonte, MG, Belém, PA, Brasília, DF, Manaus, AM, Recife, PE and Salvador, BA, with extended locations in Caruaru, PE, Feira de Santana, BA and Goiânia, GO. Campo Grande, MS is expected to join soon. We plan to operate in the future in all cities where IX.br is present and CDNs are not already present, however, the implementation will be gradual and depends on the success of the initiative.
A main location is one where OpenCDN's physical infrastructure — servers, rack space, and connectivity — is installed in the same city as the IX.br Internet Exchange Point (IXP) through which OpenCDN participates.
An extended location is one where OpenCDN participates in an IX.br IXP located in a different city from where its infrastructure is hosted. This is done via remote peering: the physical infrastructure remains at a main location, but OpenCDN establishes a presence at another city's IX.br IXP.
For example, Brasília is a main location — the Content Distribution Point (CDP) is physically installed there, and OpenCDN participates in the IX.br Brasília IXP. Goiânia is an extended location: OpenCDN participates remotely in the IX.br Goiânia IXP from the Brasília infrastructure.
Main locations: Belo Horizonte, MG, Belém, PA, Brasília, DF, Manaus, AM, Recife, PE and Salvador, BA. Extended locations: Caruaru, PE (extended from Recife, PE), Feira de Santana, BA (extended from Salvador, BA) and Goiânia, GO (extended from Brasília, DF).
No. Although NIC.br also contributes with resources for OpenCDN, the majority of expenses are shared between the participant CDNs and Autonomous Systems (ASs) connected.
Nevertheless, as OpenCDN is a non-profit initiative, and as the costs are shared between all the players, they are low.
OpenCDN is open for all CDNs, both for those owned by content providers, as well as for CDNs that offer their services commercially for other companies. However, we can have resource limitations in some locations. Where it is the case, we will impose restrictions based on resource consumption.
The CDN must install their cache servers in the OpenCDN infrastructure, and configure them in a way which the local ISPs can access them thru the OpenCDN Autonomous System. The CDN also must agree with OpenCDN terms of use.
The ISP must be an Autonomous System, and it has to be participating in the local IX.br Internet Exchange. It also must agree with OpenCDN terms of use, agree to pay the shared costs, and set a bilateral peering session with OpenCDN Autonomous System, at the local IX.
CDNs' share in cost-sharing is determined by their datacenter space and energy consumption. In many cases, depending on the resources required and the benefit brought to the participants, CDNs have no costs at all. Please contact us by e-mail opencdn@nic.br so we can analyze your specific case.
No, it is a shared infrastructure where CDNs can install their own cache servers to be used by, shared by, the interested participants in the local IX.br's IXP.
At each CDP, the following resources are available for CDNs:
- rack space and other resources in the data center suitable for hosting the servers;
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IP connectivity support (provided as an operational input by NIC.br), through the OpenCDN AS, to feed the caches;
- depending on the geographic location, an L2 connection is also available to IX.br in São Paulo, or IX.br in Rio de Janeiro, or IX.br in Fortaleza, where many CDNs have their own infrastructure, through the Autonomous System (AS) of the OpenCDN, so that it is possible to feed caches directly through these infrastructures;
- enough IP address space for the caches, from the OpenCDN Autonomous System, if necessary;
- connection to the local IX.br IXP, in which ISPs and other local ASs participate, so that CDNs can distribute their content locally.
ISPs can access CDN content by establishing a bilateral BGP session with the OpenCDN Autonomous System at the local IX.br Internet Exchange, within the shared infrastructure operated by NIC.br.
ISPs' share in the cost-sharing is determined by their infrastructure usage bracket. The more content received from OpenCDN, the higher the share in expenses.
The OpenCDN participant is fitted in a category that determines the size of a virtual port, for example 100Mbps, 500Mbps, or 5Gbps. This category is chosen to best fit the real usage, based on 95th Percentile measurements, and it is reviewed periodically. The participant's contribution to shared costs is based on this category.
Brazil has around 9,000 Internet Autonomous Systems, according to Registro.br data. Anatel, the Brazilian Telecom regulator, says that approximately 20,000 companies are licensed to operate telecommunications networks that are normally used in the provision of Internet access (companies SCM licensed and exempt from licensing). There are, therefore, several thousand access providers serving the Brazilian market. It is also important to understand that there is a concentration on companies that used to be concessionaires of telephony services. It is estimated that more than 40% of the Internet market belongs to former concessionaires (incumbents) such as Claro, Vivo and Tim. Thousands of other providers, however, of different sizes, are responsible for bringing fixed Internet to about 60% of users. To install CDN's caches inside the network of biggest operators can be insufficient to reach the majority of users with desired quality and low delay.
Yes. OpenCDN provides a shared infrastructure for cache servers, which is cheaper than to host the cache servers inside the ISP network. Besides that, OpenCDN provides a distributed architecture, i.e., the bigger ISPs can peer with OpenCDN at several locations, bringing the content closer to its users.
NIC.br makes available IP connectivity support (IPv4 and IPv6) via AS61580 as an operational input for cache feeding. In some locations, AS61580 is also directly connected to the IX.br's IXP of São Paulo, or Rio de Janeiro, or Fortaleza; in these cases, it is preferable to use the CDN's infrastructure in the IXP, if available, to feed the caches.
OpenCDN is operated by NIC.br, a neutral and non-profit organization. It is the same organization that operates IX.br, including IX.br São Paulo, the biggest IXP in the world.
OpenCDN will not be legally constituted as a separate entity from NIC.br. OpenCDN is an initiative of NIC.br.
No. OpenCDN does not provide telecommunications services. NIC.br acts as a user of telecommunications services it contracts from third parties — such as IP transit and L2 transport links — which serve solely as operational inputs supporting the shared infrastructure, and are not autonomous services offered to participants.
OpenCDN offers participants access to a shared cache-hosting infrastructure, with shared operational costs, qualifying as a Value-Added Service (VAS) under Article 61 of Brazilian Telecommunications Law 9.472/1997.
The Brazilian Network Information Center, NIC.br was created to implement the decisions and projects designed by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, CGI.br, which is responsible for the coordination and integration of all Internet service initiatives in the country.
NIC.br is the executive arm of the CGI.br. Its mission involves certain rights and obligations, which include:
- registering and maintaining <.br> domain names, as well as allocating Autonomous System Numbers (ASN) and IPv4 or IPv6 addresses in the country through Registro.br;
- handling and responding to computer security incidents involving networks connected to the Brazilian Internet, which are activities to be carried out by CERT.br;
- projects that support and improve the network infrastructure in the country, such as the direct interconnection between networks (PTT.br/IX.br) and the distribution of the Brazilian Official Time (NTP.br). These projects are the responsibility of CEPTRO.br;
- producing and publishing indicators, statistics and strategic information on the development of the Brazilian Internet, under the responsibility of CETIC.br;
- promoting studies and recommending procedures, norms and technical and operational standards that will improve network and Internet service security, as well as ensure its increased and adequate use by society, as established by the W3C.br and
- providing technical and operational support to LACNIC, the Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) was created by Interministerial Ordinance 147, of May 31st, 1995, which was amended by Presidential Decree 4,829 of September 3rd, 2003, with the purpose of coordinating and integrating all Internet service initiatives in Brazil, as well as promoting technical quality, innovation and the dissemination of the services available.
The CGI.br is comprised of members from the government, the corporate sector, the third sector and the academic community, and as such constitutes a unique Internet governance model for the effective participation of society in decisions involving network implementation, management and use. Based on the principles of multilateralism, transparency and democracy, since July 2004 the CGI.br has been democratically electing representatives from the civil society to participate in discussions and to debate priorities for the Internet together with the government.
IX.br (that used to be called PTT.br or PTTMetro), is the Internet Exchange Point initiative of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, CGI.br.
IX.br was started in 2004 and now operates 39 IXPs in different Brazilian cities covering the 5 administrative regions of the country: north, northeast, southeast, center-west and south.
The initiative is supported with resources coming from the domain names '.br', and it is operated by NIC.br. NIC.br acts providing not only infrastructure, but a set of related initiatives including capacity building, for instance, in order to promote IXPs sustainability.