Smarty: scalability, fault tolerance and support for multiservice scenarios

The growth of the subscriber base is a natural stage in the development of any TV service. However, with the growth come challenges: how will the platform behave at peak loads, will it withstand a sharp increase in simultaneous online, can it be possible to expand the infrastructure without stopping the service and restructuring the architecture? What if your business needs to manage multiple services on the same platform?

Platform Smarty from Microimpuls it was designed to scale. Flexible licensing policies, clustering support, proven resistance to high loads and built-in mechanisms for working with multiple services allow the operator to grow without restrictions.

Expandable license: from start to hundreds of thousands of subscribers

Smarty offers a licensing model that is growing with the operator’s business.

Licensing by subscribers, not by devices. The license is tied to the number of subscribers entered into the system. The number of connected devices (set-top boxes, smartphones, tablets, Smart TV) is not limited - the subscriber can watch on any number of devices without additional costs for the operator.
Start from one license to one server. At the initial stage, the operator acquires a basic license that covers the operation of the platform on one server. This minimizes the entry threshold and allows you to launch the service with minimal investment.
Horizontal scaling as you grow. When the subscriber base grows, the operator acquires cluster licenses that allow:
- increase computing power by adding new servers to the cluster;
- ensure fault tolerance through redundancy and load distribution.

Proven high-load operation

Smarty has already proven its reliability on large services with a larger audience 300,000 subscribers simultaneously online. This is not a theoretical calculation – the platform works in industrial operation with such indicators.

What's behind this number:

Optimized methods of processing requests. Critical operations (authorization, channel listing, EPG, access control) are optimized for execution time.
Effective caching. Data that is frequently requested (channel lists, EPG for the coming days, content metadata) is cached at different levels, which reduces the load on the database and speeds up the interface response.
Load distribution. In cluster architecture, requests are distributed among multiple nodes, which eliminates bottlenecks and ensures stable operation even during peak hours.

Scalability flexibility: power and fault tolerance

Smarty’s cluster architecture allows the operator to prioritize expansion:

Power scaling. Add servers to handle the growing number of subscribers and increase bandwidth. It is important to actively connect new users.
Scaling fault tolerance. Reservation of critical components (databases, application servers) to ensure smooth operation even when one of the nodes fails. Automatic switching to backup nodes occurs without operator involvement.

Both scenarios can be combined depending on the current tasks and strategy of service development.

Geographically distributed services: caching servers at each location

For operators with subscribers in different regions or countries, it is critical to ensure the same high quality of service regardless of the user’s location. Smarty supports the construction of geographically distributed clusters using caching servers (Edge servers) in each geopoint.

Architecture is built according to the scheme Origin-EdgeCentral servers (Origin) are responsible for preparing and transcoding content, and distributed Edge servers deliver streams to end subscribers. This approach has several advantages:

Reducing the load on central servers. Edge servers take over the bulk of subscriber traffic, unloading Origin servers and allowing them to focus on content preparation.
Reduce delays. The subscriber receives a stream from the nearest geographic Edge server, which minimizes response time and reduces packet losses.
Reducing requirements for main channels. Only one instance of the stream is transmitted between Origin and Edge, not many copies for each subscriber, which saves network bandwidth.
Increased fault tolerance. Failure of one Edge server does not affect the operation of other geographical areas - subscribers automatically switch to backup nodes.

Edge servers can be deployed in any geographical location of the operator’s presence – in every city, region or country where there is a subscriber base. Smarty and related video services (such as Spectr) support clustering to build just such a fault-tolerant and geographically distributed network.

In addition, the client part of the platform (portal) can be placed on CDN services, which further speeds up the loading of the interface for subscribers in different regions.

Single Multi-Service Platform: Multi-Service Scenario Flexibility

Smarty allows you to manage multiple TV services within a single platform installation. This is especially true for operators who develop multiple brands, serve different audience segments, or go through M&A scenarios (merger, acquisition of services).

Depending on the business task, two approaches are available:

1. Work within one operator without sub-operators. Suitable for scenarios where services combine common settings, content or billing, but differ in secondary features:

different brands with a single list of channels and billing;
different interface languages;
different tariff plans with a different set of content (for example, geolocation);
different billing systems or currencies with a single content.

2. Creation of suboperators. It is required when services are completely independent: they have different brands, billings, channel listings and settings. In this case, a suboperator license is purchased, and isolated instances of the service are created within one Smarty.

Key opportunities when working with sub-operators:

for each sub-operator, you can set up separate accounts in the administration panel with access only to your service;
the superuser account manages all sub-operators simultaneously;
for the rapid deployment of the new service, a cloning command is provided for an existing suboperator with the ability to selectively copy lists of channels, movies, radio stations, cameras and applications.

Dealer model. A separate scenario is working with partners (dealers) who attract subscribers and receive a percentage from their subscriptions. In Smarty, you can create a dealer account with limited access to the admin: it sees only attracted subscribers and their financial transactions, can start new accounts and generate reports for mutual settlements.

Invitation to cooperate

Microimpuls invites telecom operators to implement the Smarty platform with the ability to scale for any subscriber base - from several thousand to hundreds of thousands of simultaneous viewers. Flexible licensing policy, proven fault tolerance, support for geographically distributed clusters and multiservice scenarios allow you to grow without risks and downtime.

To discuss the details, fill in the feedback form below – our managers will calculate the necessary configuration for your current scale and help plan the expansion for the future.