Prefetching

Prefetching positions target media content at the edge in anticipation of requests by end users. This reduces the time to deliver that content. Prefetching extracts data from the current request or response and determines the next object that should be requested. For example, when a specific segment in a media clip is requested by a player, you can prefetch the next segment to the Edge to expedite its delivery.

​Akamai​ offers two forms of prefetching:

• Common Media Client Data (CMCD) segment prefetching. Configure your player to use the CMCD specification to deliver metadata along with a request for your content. This metadata offers hints on the next logical segment to be delivered. ​Akamai​ can review it to prefetch this content and add it to edge server caches. CMCD also offers support for other functionality in your AMD property. See Common Media Client Data for details on adding this support.
• Origin-assist prefetching. When ​Akamai​ fetches an object from your origin server, it can respond with a header that lists the next object in the sequence. ​Akamai​ can prefetch this object and add it to edge server caches. See Origin-assist prefetch for complete details.