Video Streaming & Adaptive Bitrate Architecture

Delivering video across the internet represents more than $65\%$ of global internet bandwidth. Unlike small JSON payloads or transactional relational data, video files are massive binary streams where smooth playback requires sustaining megabits per second of continuous delivery without stalling.

Building platforms like YouTube, Netflix, or TikTok requires solving three massive systems challenges:

• Transcoding at Scale: Ingesting high-bitrate raw video files and asynchronously transcoding them into dozens of resolution/codec ladders (AV1, HEVC, H.264 at 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p).
• Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR): Chopping video into small $2\text{ to }6\text{-second}$ media segments, allowing client video players to dynamically switch bitrates based on real-time bandwidth fluctuations.
• Global CDN Delivery: Organizing multi-tiered Content Delivery Networks with origin shields so millions of concurrent viewers stream video without crashing the origin storage clusters.