Serving the Internet Service Providers

ARK Multicasting is a new method to deliver data across an ISP network using Broadcast Television to data cast high demand content. The ARK network consists of ~300 TV stations covering ~100 million people in major metropolitan cities and rural communities alike. ARK is especially strong in tier two and tier three markets where existing rural broadband services are lacking the ability to keep up with the data demands.

Edge Caching Architecture

ARK provides a network enhancement for local ISPs without the expense. As a pure downstream service, ARK simply offloads the high demand data content for the ISP freeing up the network. With ~80% of Internet consumption coming from streaming video content, the incumbent unicast ISP services are congested creating diminished service for all users. ARK can realistically offload 35% of that content utilizing its Internet Broadcasting Network to data cast the most consumed content so that the ISP doesn’t have to. When the end user requests a given video through their OTT service or a large popular data file, the request is routed to the datacenter in their home with full digital rights management and conditional access. The net result is the freeing up of data congestion on the ISP network at the same time as the end user experiencing gigabyte speed service limited only by the speed of their local in-home Wi-Fi.

A great example of high demand content causing congestion is gaming. When XBox or Playstation come out with an update, or Call of Duty comes out with an update, that file is often times 75-100 Gb in size. Due to many homes within an ISP network downloading that same file, ARK customer research has found that ISP networks are congested as much as 60-65% due to that single file. The same thing is happening on Friday evenings with popular streaming series like Yellowstone.

Least Cost Data Routing

ARK’s ability to deliver 35% of OTT titles creates a net 35% increase in the potential number of subscribers for that ISP network with no impact on average user traffic. The unicast ISP network then enjoys less peak times with greater sector and user capacity freed up for other applications such as traditional browsing, email, and cloud services. This translates financially to more users for the ISP, higher MIR, and less churn due to happy customers. With ARK’s capacity-as-a-service business model, it is a no risk solution to a network enhancement.