BCNETwork News

March 2006

Improving Content-Delivery to Canadians: CBC/Radio-Canada Connects with BCNET

Clicking through CBC/Radio-Canada’s flagship websites cbc.ca and radio-canada.ca opens a door to a diverse array of intelligent online content from a uniquely Canadian perspective. From international, national and regional news, educational content and gaming for children, forums for cultural expression and resources such as the CBC/Radio-Canada archives, which includes radio and television clips documenting Canadian history, CBC/Radio-Canada’s online content puts information about what matters most in Canadians’ world at their fingertips. Imagine if this information could be made available to a greater number of Canadians at a faster and more reliable rate. With CBC/Radio-Canada’s recent connection to BCNET’s Vancouver Transit Exchange, this goal is becoming a reality!

Leading-Edge Online Programming for more Canadians
CBC/Radio-Canada has been a cultural institution in Canada since the early days of radio and television broadcast – committed to providing all Canadians with a wide-range of informative and entertaining programming that is distinctly Canadian. Now, as we enter an increasingly digital age, CBC/Radio-Canada wants to expand its role as a leading-edge content provider and deliver innovative online programming and content to more users than ever before.

Expanding their Reach
CBC/Radio-Canada needed to grow its reach and make content more easily accessible to a wider audience across the country. (currently, there are 5 million Internet users who access the CBC/Radio-Canada websites). To expand its reach and publish a more complex amount of high quality content, CBC/Radio-Canada was looking to increase their network bandwidth both regionally and nationally and access new communities of users.

The Solution, Peering with the BCNET Community
CBC/Radio-Canada found an answer to some of their challenges after meeting with BCNET and learning about our unique “Transit Exchange (TX)” model. The TX is a central data centre located in downtown Vancouver which allows CBC/Radio-Canada to peer or exchange data freely in Vancouver with a diverse community of universities, research and government. Basically, any data that flows between the members at the TX is data without fees. Normally, there would be carrier charges, but this neutral model eliminates these fees. This model will provide CBC/Radio-Canada with a larger audience, greater and more cost-effective accessibility of content.

“BCNET is an entity that provides connectivity to universities, school boards, government offices and research centres – all locations where viewers are likely to connect to cbc.ca or radio-canada.ca,” explains Bernard Jules, Senior Project Manager of Internet and New Media Technology for CBC/Radio-Canada. “Any user that is already on the BCNET backbone will have free access to our content almost instantaneously.”

Accessing a New Community by Peering with ISPs
BCNET’s Transit Exchange model provides organizations with the ability to connect to multiple commercial Internet service providers at one location. This meant CBC/Radio-Canada had the ability to peer with ISPs at the Exchange saving them the hassle and expensive costs of getting separate circuits for each provider. For CBC/Radio-Canada, peering with ISPs has resulted in better performance from providers at the exchange. As well, peering with ISPs such as Shaw has meant access to the ISPs community of users—a huge base of users. Any ISP user on Shaw can connect directly to cbc.ca for a fixed price for service, a very cost effective model. CBC/Radio-Canada also uses the additional links as a secondary multihoming back-up plan for around the clock guaranteed Internet service.

Connecting to Research Institutions & Universities Across the Country
As well as accessing the BCNET Community, CBC/Radio-Canada is now connected through BCNET to the National Research Network, CA*net 4, linking them to universities and research institutes across the country and around the world. In addition, they have a similar type of peering relationship in Toronto and Montreal with regional universities, research and government.

Greater Bandwidth for New Media

Connecting at BCNET’s Vancouver Transit Exchange centre will enable CBC/Radio-Canada to use greater bandwidth for online content delivery. Now, with gigabit capacity, CBC's online content development teams will have improved capacity to deliver content, such as streaming video, podcasting and advanced multimedia.

Two teams dedicated to developing web-based concepts for CBC/Radio-Canada, based in Vancouver, create online content for Radio-3 and Zed. Radio-3 is broadcast over radio on CBC Radio Two, via satellite and via streaming media online. Zed uses a combination of television and online programming to present diverse forms of creative expression, broadcasting new short films, documentaries, animation, visual art, performance and music from Canada and around the world.

“Radio 3 and Zed are the primary beneficiaries of our recent connection to BCNET,” affirms Jules. “Having access to many of the same providers through three peering exchanges in three major centres across the country will greatly increase the performance of data transfer from our websites to the viewer at home. In addition to performance benefits, access to increased bandwidth at no extra cost will enable CBC/Radio-Canada to publish more online content such as Radio 3 and Zed without cost as an obstacle.”

The Bottom Line

“CBC/Radio-Canada's goal is to deliver more and more quality online content to the Canadian public,” says Jules. “Connecting to the BCNET peering exchange and others, dramatically decreases the cost of providing this content as compared to traditional Internet service. And overall, through our connections at the peering exchanges, Canadians will be able to access our website more quickly, directly and effectively.”

About Bernard Jules
Bernard Jules is a senior technology professional with more than 18 years of experience in computer networking in which 13 years has been dedicated to the direction and project management of Internet technologies and computer research and development projects. For the past 3 years, Mr. Jules has been working for CBC/Radio-Canada and presently occupies the position of Senior Project Manager of Internet and New Media Technology. While at CBC, he has managed and implemented a number of high impacts projects, among them the peering with BCNET and RISQ as well as the IP Multicast project.