How Edge Servers Work - MACROMEDIA FLASH MEDIA SERVER 2-USING FLASH MEDIA SERVER EDGE SERVERS Use Manual

Deploying edge servers lets administrators distribute the incoming connection requests for
Flash Media Server services. Traffic between clients and the origin server uses the existing
bandwidth and system resources more efficiently. More traffic occurs locally between the
clients' computers and the edge server. Without edge servers, all clients have to connect to a
Flash Media Server origin server, no matter where that server is located.
Edge servers mediate communications traffic between the organization's trusted network and
an untrusted network such as the Internet. Using edge servers does not remove the need for a
firewall to manage the traffic at an IP level, but does provide an additional layer of security at
the application level.

How edge servers work

With an edge-origin deployment strategy, all connection requests from users' computers for
Flash Media Server services are redirected to an edge server. The edge server receives the
request from the user's computer, but the edge server is not running the application. The edge
server makes the connection to another computer, called the origin server, where the
application is running. When the origin server fulfills the request for Flash Media Server
services, it sends the application's data back to the edge server, which in turn forwards the data
to the client (the user's computer).
It may seem to the users that they are directly connected to the origin server where the
application is located. The edge server does make it appear as if it is running the application.
The edge server's role, however, is to mediate the communications between clients and the
origin server. Edge servers authenticate the users and authorize their requests for web services.
For example, when Flash Media Server is deployed solely on one computer and is running just
one application instance, system and network resources may not always be sufficient when a
large number of users in an organization want to connect almost simultaneously to Flash
Media Server from multiple locations. Such might be the case in an enterprise-wide meeting
or conference. When too many users want to access the same application at the same time, the
existing bandwidth and system resources can be overwhelmed. Increased latency is another
indication that resources need to be reconfigured or reallocated.
Every connection into the origin server consumes resources independent of the actual data
flowing through the connection. As the number of connections increase, this load can become
inordinately large and adversely affect the server performance. The edge server greatly
mitigates this problem by aggregating connections. The edge multiplexes the connections
from a large number of clients on to one connection to the origin server.
6 Using Edge and Origin Servers