Live and VOD need balanced push/pull paths. Attacks target playback URLs and origin fetches.
Typical pressures
- Hot URL leeching blowing bandwidth budgets
- Exposed ingest IPs under targeted DDoS
- Cross-border playback stalls from poor steering
- Interactive peaks (chat/gifts) driving L7 CC
Typical scenarios
Switch ingest/play paths by use case
Scenario path
LL-HLS for low delay
High concurrency; first frame and stall metrics.
Ingest → transcode → edge
Scenario path
Bandwidth guard on hot shows
Hotlink + CC rules; block abusive pulls.
Auth → cache → viewers
Scenario path
Sub-second WebRTC
Co-host and gift spikes; split signaling and media.
Signal → media → audience
Protocol stack
Pick a protocol path
HLS
Widest compatibility for VOD.
LL-HLS
Few-second live for sports/commerce.
WebRTC
Sub-second for interaction.
Ingest and playback intercept log
Focus areas
Playback acceleration
Smart DNS and edge cache for startup time.
Ingest protection
Tokens, Referer, and IP policies hiding real entrypoints.
Bandwidth scrub
CC rules for leeching and abusive Range requests.
Observability
Concurrent viewers, bitrates, origin egress, blocks.
Bandwidth posture
Ingest/play bandwidth funnel
Architecture
Edge push/pull
Authenticate ingest at the edge; distribute playback over Anycast; fetch origin only when needed.
- 01Ingest → edge auth
- 02Transcode / ABR packaging (optional)
- 03Playback domains with hotlink controls
- 04Attack traffic dropped before origin