Optimizing Content Delivery Networks through Simulations

Andy Banta
Magnition IO
Abstract

Building on Optimizing Complex Hierarchical Memory Systems through Simulation from SDC 2023, this talk details recent work to optimize caching systems used in Content Delivery Networks, or CDNs. CDNs are built out of groups of servers at a variety of locations with various tiers and types of caches. Modern CDN caches present a huge array of variable configurations.

By modularly simulating the components into building blocks, we show how you can quickly try many different sets of configurations. This modularity also allows plugging in alternative or proprietary components to measure their impact on the overall system cost and performance. These simulations can be built in days or weeks, instead of the months to years needed to build and test live systems.

This session walks through the process of simulating specific CDN configurations. We demonstrate how modular components are swapped and show the simulated performance of different variations. We also demonstrate how to use real-world CDN traces to build realistic scenarios and how the results of the analysis are graphically presented.

You won't want to miss this session.