OTT Interconnection Architecture

In the competitive global Over-The-Top (OTT) market, the end-user experience is the key determinant of success. For North American and European content providers looking to expand into Latin American markets, understanding the underlying network topology is not just a technical issue, but a crucial strategic advantage. This first in a series of two articles explores how a well-designed and optimized network infrastructure can transform OTT content delivery in a region with unique connectivity challenges.

1. Current challenges for international OTT providers in Latin America

U.S. and European OTT content providers face numerous challenges as they expand into emerging markets:

• Geographic dispersion: Populations spread across dense urban areas and remote rural regions, with distribution patterns different from North American and European markets.
• Infrastructure diversity: Significant variability in the quality and capacity of access networks, with digital divides more pronounced than in developed markets.
• Global quality expectations: Latin American users demanding similar experiences to those in developed markets, despite infrastructure limitations.
• International cost optimization: Need to balance cross-border infrastructure investment with sustainable business models for markets with different purchasing power.

According to a Cisco study (2023), OTT video traffic in Latin America is growing at an annual rate of 26%, exceeding the global average of 24%, which intensifies these challenges for international providers.

2. Backbones: The cross-border digital backbone

High-capacity backbones form the foundation of any effective distribution strategy for an international OTT. These digital highways carry huge volumes of data over long distances, connecting cities, countries and continents.

North American and European OTT providers expanding into LatAm must consider:

• International capacity: can the backbone network in the region support traffic peaks during high-demand events?
• Geopolitical redundancy: Are there alternative routes that guarantee service continuity in the face of disruptive regional events?
• Multinational scalability: Can the infrastructure grow to meet future demands in emerging markets?

InterNexa has developed one of the most robust backbones in Latin America, with more than 32,000 km of fiber optics interconnecting the main urban centers of Colombia and Peru with international interconnection points, providing the necessary backbone for global OTT services.

An Akamai report (2023) indicates that average latency on transcontinental connections can be reduced by up to 35% through the use of optimized backbones with strategic points of presence.

3. Datacenter Interconnection: Foundation for international OTT content distribution

In the modern architecture of international OTT services, datacenters represent critical nodes where content is stored, processed and distributed. Efficient interconnection between these datacenters is fundamental to ensure redundancy, operational continuity and resource optimization on a global scale.

a. Datacenter interconnection architectures

Interconnection between datacenters can be implemented using different topologies, each with specific advantages for multinational OTT services:

• Full-mesh topology: offers maximum redundancy and minimum latency by directly connecting each datacenter to all others. Ideal for critical content and real-time applications that must maintain consistency across regions, but requires greater investment in cross-border infrastructure.
• Regional ring topology: Provides redundancy with fewer links, connecting each datacenter with its two closest neighbors within similar geopolitical regions. Suitable for regional content distribution with moderate latency requirements.
• Star/hub topology with continental hierarchy: Connects secondary regional datacenters through one or more central continental hubs. Optimizes costs for OTT providers with main processing centers in North America or Europe and multiple distribution points in Latin America.
• Multinational hybrid topologies: Combine elements of the above to balance performance, redundancy and cost according to the specific needs of the international OTT service and the regulatory particularities of each country.

According to an IDC study (2024), companies that implement hybrid network topologies optimized for content distribution between North America and Latin America experience an average ROI 27% higher than those using traditional architectures.

b. Key technologies for datacenter interconnection

InterNexa implements advanced datacenter interconnection technologies that directly benefit international OTT providers:

• DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing): allows multiple optical signals to be transmitted simultaneously over a single fiber, multiplying effective capacity. InterNexa offers DWDM links with capacities up to 400G per wavelength, scalable to multiple terabits, comparable to North American and European connectivity standards.
• Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN): Provides centralized orchestration and intelligent application-based routing, dynamically optimizing routes for OTT content based on real-time network conditions across multiple countries.
• International low-latency Ethernet: Dedicated point-to-point links between datacenters with guaranteed latency, essential for content synchronization and interactive applications that must maintain consistency across regions.

A Gartner analysis (2023) indicates that cross-border SD-WAN deployments reduce operational costs by up to 40% while improving application performance by 30% for multinational OTT services.

c. Advantages for global OTT providers

A well-designed datacenter interconnection strategy offers significant benefits for multinational operations:

• Optimal geopolitical distribution: Allows content to be deployed strategically close to end users while maintaining compliance with local data regulations.
• Enhanced resilience to regional events: Ensures service continuity even during partial infrastructure failures or localized disruptive events.
• Efficient cross-border synchronization: Facilitates content updates across multiple international locations with minimal latency.
• Optimized management of multinational resources: Enables dynamic load balancing between datacenters according to region-specific demand patterns.
  
  

4. International Peering: Optimizing Cross-Border Interconnections

Peering represents agreements between network providers to exchange traffic directly, avoiding longer and more costly routes. For international OTT services, strategic peering has immediate benefits:

Reduced cross-border latency: Traffic travels over more direct routes between continents.
Better control of international costs: Transit through third-party networks in different jurisdictions is minimized.
Increased global resiliency: Content delivery routes are diversified across multiple borders.

Well-negotiated peering agreements can make the difference between a smooth streaming experience and frustrating interruptions or buffering for users in emerging markets.

A study by the Internet Society (2023) shows that optimized peering agreements can reduce latency between North and South America by up to 45%, significantly improving the end-user experience.

5. Protocols and Technical Considerations for International Deployment

DCI (Data Center Interconnection) optimized for variable latencies

For global OTT services, it is crucial to select the right protocols for interconnection:

• EVPN VXLAN: Enables extending L2 networks between intercontinental datacenters, facilitating workload and content mobility.
• Multinational dynamic routing: Protocols such as BGP with optimizations for traffic engineering ensure that data always takes the optimal route considering varying geopolitical conditions.
• MPLS/SR with international guarantees: Provides QoS guarantees and traffic isolation for different types of content across multiple jurisdictions.

6. Transmission protocols adapted to emerging markets

The choice between HLS, DASH, WebRTC or other protocols must be made considering the underlying network infrastructure. In networks with variable characteristics such as those found in some regions of Colombia and Peru, adaptive protocols such as DASH with profiles optimized for Latin American conditions offer better performance according to studies by Netflix Open Connect (2023).

7. Encryption and security with regional regulatory considerations.

The topological design must consider the implementation of DRM and encryption, minimizing the impact on latency while complying with local regulations. InterNexa offers solutions that maintain security without compromising performance, adapting to country-specific regulatory requirements.

In the next article we will explore specific implementations of multinational CDNs, edge node architectures optimized for Latin American conditions, and case studies with quantifiable QoE improvement metrics for international OTT services.

Considering optimizing your interconnection architecture for OTT expansion in Latin America? Contact us at internexa.com to evaluate customized technical solutions that maximize the performance of your transnational infrastructure.