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Netflix Open Connect

Open Connect is Netflix's content-delivery network — the global network of caching appliances Netflix deploys at ISPs and Internet Exchange Points to serve member streaming traffic close to viewers. Its canonical public documentation is openconnect.netflix.com.

Within the sysdesign-wiki, Open Connect's first documented role (as of 2025-04-01) is a production-infrastructure backbone, not a streaming CDN: it carries high-bandwidth media traffic between regional ingest centres and AWS as part of Netflix's hybrid-cloud media-ingest architecture behind the Media Production Suite.

Per Netflix TechBlog 2025-04-01: "Netflix has invested in a hybrid infrastructure … Local storage and compute services are connected through the Netflix Open Connect network (Netflix Content Delivery Network) to the infrastructure of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The system facilitates large volumes of camera and sound media and is built for speed."

Stub note

This wiki page is currently a stub — Open Connect's streaming- side architecture (appliance design, BGP anycast peering, fill strategy, title popularity → cache admission) has not yet been ingested. Expand this page when one of Netflix's streaming-side Open Connect posts is distilled (Globally Distributed Content Delivery, the OCA hardware posts, etc.).

Seen in

  • sources/2025-04-01-netflix-globalizing-productions-with-netflixs-media-production-suite — Open Connect in its production-backbone role carrying media between ingest centres and AWS for Content Hub + MPS. First non-streaming role for Open Connect on the wiki.
  • sources/2026-04-02-netflix-smarter-live-streaming-vbr-at-scale — Open Connect as the fleet delivery substrate for Netflix Live post-2026-01-26 CBR → capped VBR cutover. VBR's ≈10% lower peak-minute traffic (the Open Connect capacity-planning metric) is a direct CDN-provisioning win; ≈15% lower average bytes reduces fill + serve burden on OC appliances + peering ISPs. The nominal- bitrate admission control fix keeps per-server session- admission safety consistent across the CBR→VBR transition.
  • sources/2025-12-05-netflix-av1-now-powering-30-of-netflix-streaming — Open Connect as a bilateral network-efficiency lever on the AV1 rollout axis. Netflix (2025-11-13 snapshot): AV1 carries ~30% of Netflix streaming at ~1/3 less bandwidth than AVC/HEVC at matched/higher quality, reducing fill + serve burden on OC appliances and on the ISPs peering with Open Connect. "With more than 300 million members, Netflix streaming constitutes a non-trivial portion of global internet traffic. By shifting a substantial share of our streaming to AV1, we reduce overall internet bandwidth consumption, and lessen system and network load for both Netflix and our partners." Second canonical streaming-CDN datum after the VBR rollout; restores the canonical streaming-CDN framing alongside the production-backbone (MPS) role.
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