Beyond Traditional CDNs – the shift to Open Edge Content Delivery (The 2020s)

As we’ve seen, the last two decades of streaming growth have put immense stress on traditional content delivery networks. Legacy CDNs typically host caches in a limited number of data centers or Internet exchange points. Even though these are distributed globally, they are often still far from many end-users, especially those in suburban or rural areas. This distance introduces latency and consumes a lot of middle-mile bandwidth, as streams must traverse ISP backbones to reach viewers.

Today’s real-time applications and ultra-high-resolution streams expose the shortcomings of this model. Live 4K sports streams, cloud video gaming, interactive VR—such experiences demand ultra-low latency and massive throughput at the same time. Despite network throughput improvements growing at 33% annually (outpacing even Moore’s Law/a>), demand for data continues to outstrip capacity. The solution? Pushing content and compute even closer to end-users. 

The basis of the Open Edge Model

The future of content delivery is decentralized and collaborative. The Open Edge model, exemplified by Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud, operates within Internet Service Providers’ (ISP) networks rather than through third-party CDNs. Small caching and compute nodes are deployed at the ISP edges –central offices, a regional data centers, or 5G hubs – bringing content within one “hop” away from consumers.

Open Caching, a set of open standards from the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA), federates content delivery infrastructure deployed deep inside last-mile ISP networks into a global CDN with open APIs for content publishers​. This creates a unified platform where content providers cache videos on ISP-operated nodes, leading to key benefits:

• Lower Latency & Better QoE – Content reaches users faster with reduced buffering. Delivering from the ISP’s edge cuts out long transit routes. For example, a major ISP’s edge deployment created “the most distributed CDN in the U.S.”, dramatically improving performance​.
• Massive Capacity Relief – Video content can constitute over 70-80% of an ISP’s traffic. Instead of millions of users pulling 4K streams from distant servers, ISP can cache content locally, reducing backbone strain dramatically. Open caching prevent congestion as multiple CDNs bombard the same ISP links.
• ISP-Content Provider Collaboration – Unlike legacy models where content providers pay CDNs (who then negotiate with ISPs), Open Edge flips this into a partnership model. ISPs deploy and maintain the edge servers (often leveraging their existing facilities), and in return they share in the content delivery revenues or other value. Qwilt, for instance, shares delivery fees with partner ISPs, allowing the ISP to monetize its “last-mile” advantage.  This reduces the incentive for ISPs to throttle video traffic while benefitting both sides. ISPs cut costs and monetize their last-mile infrastructure, while providers gain scalability and reliability.

Open Edge in Action

Open caching and edge CDN deployments is accelerating. In 2020, Cisco and Qwilt partnered to power Open Edge solutions for service providers. By 2024, Comcast, the largest U.S. broadband provider, began rolling out Qwilt’s Open Edge platform to “hundreds of locations” in its network. The result? By end of 2024, around 55% of U.S. broadband households were covered by Qwilt’s on-net edge delivery platform across various ISPs.

British Telecom (BT) in the UK, Telecom Italia, Verizon, and many others have also embraced this model, deploying edge caches through open caching initiatives. Real-world outcomes are validating the approach. For example,  during the 2022 World Cup, open edge nodes in certain networks carried the bulk of traffic, delivering seamless 4K soccer matches where legacy CDNs might have faltered under record concurrency.

Modern Open Edge vs. Legacy CDN

It’s worth contrasting the technical architecture of an Open Edge versus a traditional CDN. A legacy CDN like Akamai operates from thousands of global servers but are still external to ISPs in hundreds of locations worldwide. These servers are often at internet exchange points or data centers near ISP networks, but not inside each ISP. When you start a stream on a legacy CDN, the data may travel hundreds of miles, crossing multiple networks. In an Open Edge scenario, the content server is effectively inside your ISP’s network, maybe just a city or two away. This local proximity not only cuts latency, but it also means the content doesn’t compete as much with other traffic on congested exchange links.

Open Edge takes advantage of that proximity. It also standardizes the interface so that multiple ISPs’ edge caches can behave like one large federation. A content provider doesn’t have to individually integrate with every ISP’s proprietary system – they can integrate once via the open caching API, and their streams will automatically be distributed across all participating edge caches.

Not Just Caching: Edge Computing Synergies

Another forward-looking aspect of Open Edge architecture is the convergence of content delivery with edge computing. Those same ISP-edge nodes can also host compute workloads (think of them as mini-clouds at the edge). This opens doors for new services that need both computation and content delivery very close to the user. For instance, consider cloud gaming: a game server can run on an edge compute node while game video frames are delivered from an edge cache to the player – minimizing lag. Or AR/VR experiences: heavy 3D rendering could be done on edge GPUs, streaming the visuals to a user’s headset with extremely low latency.

In telecommunications, 5G networks are deploying Multi-access Edge Computing for similar reasons, hosting apps at cell tower hubs. The Open Edge can dovetail with these efforts, effectively creating an edge cloud that serves both media and application data. In the coming years, this could support services like real-time language translation on video calls, interactive shopping experiences with AR, and city-wide sensor networks that feed video analytics.

As we’ve discussed, the Open Edge model is already proving its value across ISPs and streaming platforms optimizing efficiency and performance. But this is just the start. As 5G, edge computing, and satellite networks evolve, Open Edge will play an even bigger role in shaping the future of connectivity. In the final part of this series, we’ll explore how these trends intersect and define what they mean for the next generation of digital experiences.