Cable Television Toyama, a cable network operator in Japan, has selected and deployed the Qwilt (News - Alert) Video Fabric Controller for online video delivery and transparent caching.

The provider said that it was able to achieve a nearly 50 percent transparent caching efficiency for over the top (OTT) video, while improving the quality of experience (QoE) for its subscribers twofold. Systems integrator IT Frontier (ITF), a subsidiary of Mitsubishi (News - Alert) Corporation, managed the implementation.

Cable Television Toyama's subscribers consume various types of OTT broadband traffic. From popular online video content sites such as YouTube (News - Alert) and Dailymotion to software updates like the recent iOS7 update from Apple, its network was experiencing strain due to increasing traffic and demand.

"The aggressive growth of online video is not the only challenge facing today's operators. Other trending content, like software updates for popular devices, can degrade bandwidth quality and jam networks, especially in international markets," said Alon Maor, CEO and co-founder of Qwilt.

And indeed, many telcos, multiple system operators (MSOs), and mobile operators are actively looking at transparent caching as a required element in their network to control over-the-top (OTT) video content consumption and to provide the best possible end-to-end user experience, according to Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) principal analyst Dan Rayburn.

“It is a unique technology that simultaneously benefits a content owner, a network operator, and, most importantly, a broadband or wireless subscriber,” he said, adding that he believes the industry will grow at a steady rate for the next two years but will then get a strong boost as transparent caching is natively built into broader products/solutions, resulting in wider deployment.

As a result, the market’s worldwide revenues should be close to $350 million by 2016, growing at an average compound annual growth rate of 30 percent.

“Now a grown-up technology, transparent caching is the most cost-effective medium today for service providers to deliver OTT video with the kind of QoS demanded by consumers,” Rayburn said. “Once considered a cost-savings initiative, it is now viewed as an investment, providing demonstrable return on investment by enabling service providers to better monetize their video services.”

Qwilt's QB-Series Video Fabric Controller fits into that group of products: it monitors video traffic across operator networks in real time to identify trending and popular titles, and then stores them locally at the subscriber edge, in close proximity to end users. That way, Qwilt eliminates the need for duplication of content streams from origin sites or content delivery networks (CDNs), speeding up time to delivery and reducing network strain and congestion, especially during peak viewing times.

"Our solution sees no borders and is applicable in any operator network, regardless of region or type of content being delivered online,” said Maor. “With the support of our partners at ITF, Cable Television Toyama 's deployment is yet another fine example of the many benefits that come with implementing a unified Video Fabric solution built on next generation transparent caching and real time monitoring technology to overcome the challenges presented by OTT content delivery."