NTT Plala Adopts A10 ADCs for Hikari-TV IPv6-Based Service with More Than Three Million Subscribers

NTT Plala Inc. is a prominent player in the media and entertainment industry, particularly known for its innovative video distribution services. The company launched Hikari-TV in 2008, a high-resolution video distribution service that offers a wide range of programs, including exclusive content. NTT Plala has been a pioneer in providing IPv6-based commercial services since the days of its former 4th MEDIA service. The company has steadily grown its subscriber base, which currently stands at over three million. NTT Plala is committed to delivering high-quality, stable, and high-performance services to its customers. The company has a strong focus on integrating advanced technologies and ensuring robust support capabilities, making it a leader in its field.

NTT Plala Inc. launched its video distribution service Hikari-TV in 2008. Since then, subscriber numbers have risen steadily and currently stand at 3.05 million. The UI screen of a Hikari-TV-compatible tuner (set-top box) is distributed from a server that configures metadata, BML and UJML content, and uses an advanced server load balancer. A feature of Hikari-TV is that it has, from the start, provided IPv6-based services using NTT East and West’s FLET’S and Next Generation Network (NGN). NTT Plala’s Tomonobu Akimoto explains how choosing a load balancer was difficult because, in 2008, IPv6 technology was just beginning to spread and commercial use was in its early days. Even if the catalog said a product was IPv6-compatible, that didn’t necessarily mean all of its functions could be used just as with IPv4. We looked for the best solution available. At the time, many products that claimed to be IPv6-compatible provided compatibility only for basic functions. But NTT Plala needed a product that would support the functions we needed from a load balancer, such as SSL acceleration and source IP and cookie persistence, which are also necessary in an IPv6 environment. Besides IPv6 compatibility, it would have to be able to handle the huge volume of traffic that would come as subscriber numbers rose, and provide both high performance as well as stability. At the time, most IPv6-compatible products were high-end models that processed traffic using their CPU, but, as Mr. Akimoto explains, NTT Plala had concerns regarding the stability afforded by this approach: If you process everything using the CPU, the high load resulting from bugs in just a few functions can affect all traffic. So we looked for a model using ASICs, with the hope that hardware-based processing would provide performance and stability.

NTT Plala drew up a shortlist of load balancers from different manufacturers that appeared to satisfy its requirements and, after a comparative evaluation, selected A10 ADCs. NTT Plala’s Mr. Ken Taniuchi recalls that the biggest deciding factors were stable and high performance when using IPv6, and the small difference in functions when using IPv6 as compared with using IPv4. The A10 ADCs have dedicated ASICs specially designed for load balancing and SSL acceleration functions based on SSL-dedicated chips, and an important attraction was that A10 offers fast and stable traffic processing even when using IPv6. A10 Networks also fulfilled our development requirements, such as not making servers valid unless the servers have a loopback address, with DSR and inline configuration, especially DSR. Another important point, of course, given that we would be using these load balancers for a commercial service, was A10 Networks’ high support capability, integrating manufacturers with SI vendors. When it was first introduced, the IPv6 technology had not yet reached maturity, and its track record and operational know-how were unknown quantities. Mr. Yumito Suzuki recalls that it was the polite and speedy support provided by A10 Networks’ engineers which enabled NTT Plala to go ahead with deploying IPv6 with peace of mind: When we were actually building the system, we came across places where functions needed improving. And when that happened, A10 Networks’ engineers showed speed and diligence in solving the problem. Another feature, which has won high praise, is the A10 ADCs’ offering of two interfaces – a CLI and a Japanese-language GUI. The CLI, which allows the user to see at a glance what operations they are carrying out, is important when network engineers are undertaking configuration and management work. The GUI is ideal for viewing performance and status. NTT Plala reduces the day-to-day management workload by using the two different interfaces as appropriate.

• Since its launch in 2008, Hikari-TV has evolved into an integrated entertainment service centering on video distribution, expanding its functions and services.
• NTT Plala launched Hikari-TV Dokodemo (Hikari-TV Anywhere) for smartphones and tablets in 2011, and a smart remote control function named Rimokon Purasu (Remote Control Plus) in September 2012.
• As the Hikari-TV service has expanded, the scope of use of the A10 ADCs have increased. Initially, they were used for load balancing for authentication sequences, content purchasing, and key distribution functions. Now they are also used for load balancing for purchases via shopping services, and for database cache servers and mobile devices.
• NTT Plala streamlines load-balanced traffic and enhances user capacity by using inline configuration for cookie persistence, SSL acceleration, and other situations where return traffic needs to pass through the load balancer. For simple HTTP load balancing only, it uses DSR configuration.
• Because the devices themselves are high performance in the first place, NTT Plala can use existing A10 ADC resources just as they are, even when starting up a new service. This means not only that they don’t incur new equipment costs, but also that they can launch a new service quickly, so they have no concerns about future business development.

• Subscriber numbers have risen to 3.05 million.
• NTT Plala launched Hikari-TV Dokodemo for smartphones and tablets in 2011.
• In September 2012, NTT Plala launched a smart remote control function named Rimokon Purasu.