CDN Performance Analysis

Know exactly how your CDN delivers — measured from the user perspective, not the server side.

For ISPs, CDN operators, and content providers who need to understand how content delivery networks perform in real-world conditions. Test actual OTT services and compare CDN quality across regions, peering partners, and time of day.

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The Challenge

CDN dashboards show server metrics, not user experience

Your CDN reports show cache hit ratios and origin response times, but they cannot tell you if customers experience stalling, long loading delays, or quality drops. When video complaints spike in a region, you lack the data to determine whether the issue is your network, the CDN peering, or the content provider's encoding.

Our Approach

End-to-end CDN quality testing with real OTT services

Surfmeter probes test actual streaming services through your CDN infrastructure, measuring the complete delivery chain from CDN edge to the user's screen. By correlating video QoE scores with traceroute data, you can pinpoint whether degradation occurs at peering points, within the CDN, or in the last mile.

Key Capabilities

What you can do with this solution

CDN Path Analysis

Trace the delivery path from CDN edge servers to probes. Identify which peering partners and routes deliver the best quality for each service.

Multi-CDN Comparison

Compare delivery quality across CDN providers objectively. Measure the same services through different CDN paths to make data-driven selection decisions.

Regional Quality Mapping

Understand CDN performance across your geographic footprint. Identify regions where specific CDNs or peering arrangements underperform.

Continuous Monitoring & Alerts

Run 24/7 CDN quality tests and get alerted when delivery quality drops below thresholds — before customers notice.

Proven in Practice

CDN Delivery Optimization

“We're using Surfmeter to gain unprecedented visibility into our network performance through automated, active measurements that simulate actual streaming video quality, exactly as end-users experience it”

Business Development Manager — Gcore

Gcore, operating a global CDN with 210 points of presence across six continents, needed deeper insights into the interactions between streaming applications and their edge network. Traditional server-side monitoring couldn’t capture what end-users actually experience. With Surfmeter, Gcore gained real-world QoE visibility by measuring actual video streams from the same platforms and players that end-users rely on.

Results

Deployed Surfmeter probes at CDN edge nodes and end-user locations
Pinpointed performance issues across CDN, peering, and server-side layers
Enabled competitive benchmarking against other CDN and network providers
Unified video QoE, ping, and traceroute data through a single API

WDR, one of Germany’s largest public broadcasters, uses Surfmeter to monitor the delivery quality of their streaming services from the viewer’s perspective. Beyond continuous CDN performance monitoring, WDR uses Surfmeter to validate new player versions, compare stream configurations, and verify that encoding changes deliver the expected quality improvements before rolling them out to millions of viewers.

Results

Continuous monitoring of CDN delivery quality for WDR’s streaming services
Validated new player versions and stream configurations before rollout
Compared encoding settings and verified quality improvements objectively
Identified delivery issues across different ISPs and regions

Ready to see it in action?

Get a personalized demo and see how Surfmeter fits your use case. It only takes 30 minutes.

Business Benefits

Real outcomes for your business

Optimize CDN Costs

Make data-driven CDN selection and peering decisions based on actual delivery quality, not vendor promises.

Faster Root Cause Analysis

Correlate video QoE degradation with specific CDN paths and peering points in minutes, not days.

Negotiate with Data

Bring objective quality measurements to CDN and peering negotiations instead of relying on provider-reported metrics.

Proactive Quality Management

Detect CDN delivery issues before they impact enough subscribers to generate support calls.

How It Works

CDN analysis in 4 steps

Deploy probes at strategic network locations to measure CDN delivery quality from the subscriber's perspective.

1

Place probes at network edges

Deploy Surfmeter probes at PoPs, exchanges, and subscriber-like locations to test CDN delivery from multiple vantage points.

2

Test real OTT services

Schedule automated tests against Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, and other services. Surfmeter uses the actual streaming protocols and players, not synthetic traffic.

3

Correlate QoE with network paths

Combine P.1203 MOS scores with traceroute and DNS data to identify exactly where in the CDN delivery chain quality degrades.

4

Compare and optimize

Use regional and temporal breakdowns to compare CDN providers, peering arrangements, and delivery paths. Feed findings into network planning decisions.

Data & KPIs