Cambridge

1. Edinburgh Glasgow DL Newcastle Belfast Manchester Cambridge Oxford RL Hinxton Cardiff London Soton UK-Japan N+N October 2003

2. GridCastUsing the Grid in Broadcast Infrastructures Ron Perrott Queen’s University, Belfast {r.perrott@qub.ac.uk} Belfast e-Science Centre British Telecom BBC UK-Japan N+N October 2003

3. BBC Nations provide customised services in each nation Television programmes are distributed to BBC Nations from BBC Network (London) using dedicated leased ATM circuits. The Grid Scenario: The BBC NationsBBC NI, BBC Scotland and BBC Wales UK-Japan N+N October 2003

4. Technical High-bandwidth network connections inter-connect broadcast locations. Network bandwidth means geography is less of an issue. Organisational Less centralised Grid Infrastructure UK-Japan N+N October 2003

5. Overview • To develop a baseline media grid to support a broadcaster • Manage distributed collections of stored media • Prototype security and access mechanisms • Integrate processing and technical resources • Integrate with media standards and hardware • To analyse Quality of Service issues • Analyse remote content distribution infrastructures • Analyse remote service provision • To analyse reactivity, reliability and resilience issues in a grid-based broadcast infrastructure UK-Japan N+N October 2003

6. Characteristics • Stored media files are Gbytes and increasing • 1 hour ~ 200 Gbytes; distributes 1 petabyte /year • Management and distribution is significant technically • Metadata – location, timings, artists, storage formats etc. is an integral part of broadcast structure • Content is a valuable commodity – access, modification, copying must be controlled • High levels of quality required UK-Japan N+N October 2003

7. High level view of the Infrastructure UK-Japan N+N October 2003

8. Each Broadcast site is defined by its collection of available services • Control services • Content services Broadcasting Grid Services UK-Japan N+N October 2003

9. A Virtualised Infrastructure UK-Japan N+N October 2003

10. Scenario • A Network Schedule is defined • This schedule is the framework for Nation schedules • Network Schedules are distributed to BBC Nations • Usually via email • BBC Nations formulate their schedule • A Schedule is Broadcast • By programming local network and content control automation UK-Japan N+N October 2003

11. Model of Broadcast • Automatic distribution of broadcast schedules • Management of schedule archives • Automatic notification • Content is copied from archives to local content storage • Content distribution defined by schedule UK-Japan N+N October 2003

12. Broadcast grid issues • Business change • A revised organisational model. Services and resources • Each broadcast location gains control….no network schedule. • Resilience • Resource sharing and no single programme repository • A BBC Nation can be anywhere! • Reliability • Use resources available in other BBC sites or from 3rd party suppliers • Cost • Better use of resources and less need for backup resources • Less dependence on particular vendors or suppliers • Customisation • Schedule, local resources, local capabilities • Interoperability • Business model facilitates sharing with other broadcasters UK-Japan N+N October 2003

13. Broadcast Schedule Services • Services to control the exchange and modification of schedules • Management of a distributed collections of broadcast schedules • Services to deliver stored media to local sites • Services to plan transport of content between sites • Services to manage collections of stored media • Services to distributed content to facilitate resilience • Services to prepare content for broadcasting UK-Japan N+N October 2003

14. Progress Assessment • Software Development • Good experience of GT3 • Understanding of grid service model • GT3 shifting sands has been good and bad • Network Infrastructure • Essential network infrastructure in place • BBCNI---BeSC link in place • Janet link complete soon UK-Japan N+N October 2003

15. Model: Grid Service Operation • A schedule is registered with schedule (network) management service • Schedule is automatically distributed to (nation) schedule management • Local controller receives notification of schedule availability • Nation Controller registers (nation) schedule with local schedule management • Transport services develop a transport plan for content movement • Scheduled transport service moves content as defined in transport plan UK-Japan N+N October 2003

16. Grid Service Operation • Index services track grid sites and available services • Discovery services locate available copies of broadcast content • Services for nearest, or least busy or … • Discovery services identify best transport service to use • Cross mounted file systems, 3rd party or ftp-type transport. • Transport services move work flows associated with content • The necessary operation(s) when content is delivered UK-Japan N+N October 2003

17. Grid Service Operation • Transport planner incorporates a model of network load • High cost at peak times and low cost at off-peak • Other models in development • Content archives are managed as replica archives • Content locations are tracked….content can be withdrawn • Content archives permit automatic replication • For resilience and/or QoS • Public and private services facilitate operation with public and private networks • Co-ordinating security policies with internal BBC policies UK-Japan N+N October 2003