1. Introduction
The ICC-CT Final between India and New Zealand had a record-breaking 80+ crore concurrent viewers, making it one of the biggest live-streamed events in history. But how did streaming platforms handle this massive traffic without crashing?
🔹 The biggest challenges in live streaming:
- Scalability: Handling unpredictable traffic spikes.
- Low Latency: Delivering smooth video with minimal delay.
- High Availability: Ensuring servers don’t crash under load.
🚀 In this guide, we’ll break down the technologies used behind the scenes to ensure a seamless streaming experience.
2. Key Technologies for High-Traffic Handling
Live streaming for millions of users requires cutting-edge tech to manage traffic efficiently. Let’s explore the key components:
🔹 1. CDN (Content Delivery Network)
CDNs distribute video streams across multiple global servers, ensuring fast delivery and reducing load on the main server.
✔ How It Works:
- User requests a video.
- CDN delivers the stream from the nearest server instead of the main data center.
📌 Example: Platforms like Cloudflare, Akamai, AWS CloudFront optimize live video delivery.
🔹 2. Load Balancing
Distributes traffic across multiple servers, preventing overload.
✔ Example Load Balancer Configuration (Nginx):
upstream backend_servers {
server stream1.example.com;
server stream2.example.com;
server stream3.example.com;
}
server {
listen 80;
location /stream {
proxy_pass http://backend_servers;
}
}
📌 Popular Load Balancers: AWS ELB, Nginx, HAProxy
🔹 3. Microservices Architecture
Breaks down the streaming system into independent, scalable services like:
- Video Encoding
- User Authentication
- Live Chat & Engagement
- Advertisement Handling
✔ Why It Helps?
- Prevents bottlenecks – If one service fails, others continue working.
- Easier to scale – Add more instances to high-load services.
Continue Reading 👉 ICC-CT Final Tech: How JioCinema & Hotstar Handled Millions of Viewers
💬 What do you think? Drop your thoughts in the comments! 🚀
