Technical Questions Answered by Tech Professional - My Wife

[Dragonfly]

I've noticed a lot of criticism lately concerning both the launch and technical aspects of the WWE Network. Instead of simply going around in circles (again), I figured it would be best if I brought my wife into the discussion. As I've mentioned before, she is a DevOps professional (or "remote server tech") for a well-known European software company. More specifically, she works with Amazon AWS servers - the same exact servers that power Netflix, MLB.TV and the WWE Network. Debate involving the Network's technical shortcomings and issues drive her nuts because "no one understands how this sort of thing works." So in an effort to stop a few arguments around here (and to stop my wife from punching a wall in frustration), I open up the floor to her. If you have any technical questions, ask away. Allow me to get the ball rolling here:


In your opinion, why didn't the WWE launch the network worldwide in February?

"The main reason is due to technical support. By using the existing MLB.TV infrastructure, which is primarily set up for America, the WWE is cutting down on the amount of variables they have. The less variables you have, the easier it is for an operation like this to run.

Despite popular opinion to the contrary, there isn't simply one server in an Amazon data center labeled "WWE Network." It actually exists as a cluster of several servers spanning across multiple data centers. Those data centers are then split into several different regions. In order to keep things moving at a timely pace, each of those server clusters need to be replicated to different regions. The US WWE Network, for example, is most likely run out of their farms in Northern California. In order to make things nice and happy for, say, the UK, the cluster would have to be cloned, possibly several times, in Europe. That takes time. Starting in one country that already had a proven, functional setup lets them fine tune everything before expanding to a new country with a new, from scratch setup and a new set of problems."

[Captain & Diet]

Thanks for the info.

[Lance Uppercut]

So if these servers are based in America and they need to set up local servers in the UK, would the number of Illegal foreign transmissions (ie. Canada or England) causing any problems either on the network's end or the foreign viewers end?

[Dragonfly]

Jul 27, 2014 3:55:00 GMT -5 Lance Uppercut said:

So if these servers are based in America and they need to set up local servers in the UK, would the number of Illegal foreign transmissions (ie. Canada or England) causing any problems either on the network's end or the foreign viewers end?

From the wife:

"Good question!

Foreign users most likely see a quality dip as compared to the average US viewer. This is due to how far away the user's location is to the main Amazon cluster. A transmission that has to pass through six 'hops' (other computers, servers, etc. - And yes, that is the actual networking term) will arrive at its destination faster and generally look better than one passing through, say, sixty.

On the Network end, foreign access has a negligible effect at best on the server. The only time it would cause an issue is if nearly everyone overseas was watching the same thing at the exact same time - Wrestlemania basically. Even then, all they would have to do is add more servers to the mix. That's a surprisingly easy thing to do."

[Deleted]

How come my Netflix, streaming movies and playing PS3 online have zero problems, but the WWE network skips goes back in time, drops in quality or sometimes freezes? WWE told me it's my connection which is bull and insulting.

[chazraps]

Great posts, but I have to say, I chuckled at the title because I read it in a Borat voice.

[Mayonnaise]

Jul 27, 2014 23:36:43 GMT -5 @ratedrnightwing said:

How come my Netflix, streaming movies and playing PS3 online have zero problems, but the WWE network skips goes back in time, drops in quality or sometimes freezes? WWE told me it's my connection which is bull and insulting.

I'm not the tech person but Netflix does make changes based on your connection to give you the best quality, while WWE only streams at 720p I think it is, so your connection drops for some reason, Netflix would adjust for it while WWE won't.

[doinkmark]

This may be a dumb question, but....What are WWE's limitations content-wise? We all like to complain about "Why isn't X on the Network?", but how many shows could WWE actually host on it at one time? Would they be better off without the on-going livestream, reserving that only for the live pay-per-views?