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UserGuide for Cisc o Digital Media Manager 5.2.x
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Chapter19 Content Distribu tion and Delivery
Concepts
Content distribution technologies can make perfect copies of important files from your origin server and
store the duplicates on multiple nodes in your network. Later, anyone who needs one or more of these
cached files can obtain them quickly from a node that is closer to them than the origin server and less
heavily loaded. Such methods improve network scalability and user experience.
Topics in this chapter explain how to use content distribution technologies with Cisco Digital Media
Player (DMP) endpoints. Your understanding these important concepts will help you to use content
distribution successfully.
Understand DMP Support for the CIFS Protocol
Common Internet File System (CIFS) is a network protocol for sharing files and for obtaining remote
access to those files.
A CIFS share is a mount point on a network attached storage device that supports the CIFS protocol.
When you choose WAAS as your content distribution method, Cisco Digital Signs instructs DMPs to use
the CIFS protocol and mount a network share, such as a Windows shared folder, that uses CIFS.
Related Topics
•Configure ACNS or WAAS, page19-15
•Procedures, page 19-15
Choose a Content Delivery System to Use with DMPs
In media networks, it is sometimes necessary to distribute large files where bandwidth capacity is
moderately or severely constrained. The challenge of doing this successfully is that delivering HD or SD
video streams and deploying large assets often requires an average data transfer rate of greater than
6 million bits per second (Mbps, or megabits). Media networks can compound your need for bandwidth.
There is a practical maximum limit in any WAN for how much bandwidth each of its remote sites can
use, and a content delivery solution can help you to manage multicast file distribution efficiently to the
DMPs that operate at your remote sites. In this way, content delivery solutions can enhance the
scalability of your existing network infrastructure and adapt it for media deployments.
Table 19-1 Comparison of Supported Content-Distribution Methods
Method Use Cases
DMS-CD Consider DMS-CD when:
•You do not use Cisco Showand Share.
•You r DM Ps do not show live video or high-definition video.
•Each site in your WAN contains a maximum of three DMPs.
•Your whole network contains a maximum of 300 DMPs.
•Each site in your WAN has bandwidth capacity of less than T1/E1.
•On average, each site in your organization downloads less than 200 MB daily.
•It takes longer than 5 hours in your WAN to download 300 MB at 128 Kbps.