About the project 

The 21st Winter Olympics, a grand sport event for athletes all over the world, were held in Vancouver in 2010. The games attracted about 5,500 athletes and officials coming from 85 countries and regions globally. In addition, about 25,000 volunteers will provide volunteer services during the event and about 10,000 journalists and 1.6 million field audiences will gather in Vancouver. It is the largest competition in the history in terms of the number of athletes and scale, with totally 86 events in 15 disciplines.
 

The games were broadcasted globally on TV and Internet. Over 100 million people in more than 100 countries watched the event through VOD.

Therefore, the VOD system must be able to transmit large video flows concurrently and reliably.
 

Solution 

To meet the requirement, the solution adopts the high-performance BWStor CSA storage file system that is optimized in terms of mid-to-high speed concurrent data reading and transmission and hotspot playing. Applying the HA mode, BWStor CSA is able to realize failure automatic switch between the active and standby devices, thus ensuring high reliability and safety of the file system. The back-end storage device employs the FC disk array and provides file sharing storage services under the management of BWStor CSA.
 

By collaborating with the CDN system and through front-end application servers, the BWStor CSA system supports massive concurrent VOD services. 

Application performance

BWStor CSA system that centers the BWFS system has been proven reliable through strict testing and practical use with the following features:

1. It supports massive VOD flows. The BWStor CSA storage network integrates back-end storage devices' bandwidth to improve the back-end VOD handling capability and support massive client access jointly with CDN system.

2. It provides a large file sharing storage space for video production and VOD servers. Therefore, files can be shared by servers without being copied from one server to another and videos can be distributed and played on VOD servers after being produced, saving the time of 30 minutes from video production to VOD.

3. The BWStor CSA system is highly reliable. Because of the out-of-band data transmission structure, the system supports massive concurrent video reading and access and ensures smooth transmission of video and audio signals. Moreover, the entire system employs the HA mode so that the active and standby metadata controllers can serve as the backup device for each other, improving the reliability of the storage system.