How does youtube handle massive video content upload – ABN Techweek
YOUTUBE HANDLES 500+ HOURS OF VIDEO CONTENT UPLOADS EVERY MINUTE ON AVERAGE. HOW DOES IT MANAGE THIS?
THE DIAGRAM BELOW SHOWS YOUTUBE’S INNOVATIVE HARDWARE ENCODING PUBLISHED IN 2021.
🔹 TRADITIONAL SOFTWARE ENCODING
YOUTUBE’S MISSION IS TO TRANSCODE RAW VIDEO INTO DIFFERENT COMPRESSION RATES TO ADAPT TO DIFFERENT VIEWING DEVICES – MOBILE(720P), LAPTOP(1080P), OR HIGH-RESOLUTION TV(4K).
CREATORS UPLOAD A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF VIDEO CONTENT ON YOUTUBE EVERY MINUTE. ESPECIALLY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, VIDEO CONSUMPTION IS GREATLY INCREASED AS PEOPLE ARE SHELTERED AT HOME. SOFTWARE-BASED ENCODING BECAME SLOW AND COSTLY. THIS MEANS THERE WAS A NEED FOR A SPECIALIZED PROCESSING BRAIN TAILORED MADE FOR VIDEO ENCODING/DECODING.
🔹 YOUTUBE’S TRANSCODING BRAIN – VCU
LIKE GPU OR TPU WAS USED FOR GRAPHICS OR MACHINE LEARNING CALCULATIONS, YOUTUBE DEVELOPED VCU (VIDEO TRANSCODING UNIT) FOR WAREHOUSE-SCALE VIDEO PROCESSING.
EACH CLUSTER HAS A NUMBER OF VCU ACCELERATED SERVERS. EACH SERVER HAS MULTIPLE ACCELERATOR TRAYS, EACH CONTAINING MULTIPLE VCU CARDS. EACH CARD HAS ENCODERS, DECODERS, ETC. [1]
VCU CLUSTER GENERATES VIDEO CONTENT WITH DIFFERENT RESOLUTIONS AND STORES IT IN CLOUD STORAGE.
THIS NEW DESIGN BROUGHT 20-33X IMPROVEMENTS IN COMPUTING EFFICIENCY COMPARED TO THE PREVIOUS OPTIMIZED SYSTEM. [2]
