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CDN FAQs

F5 Distributed Cloud CDN Frequently Asked Questions

What is a CDN?

Content Delivery Networks (CDN) are "highly distributed edge-based cloud delivery platforms" that provide:

  • Content acceleration
  • API caching
  • Image optimization
  • Streaming video delivery
  • Web application and perimeter security
  • Edge compute and storage

CDN providers deploy thousands of caching, storage, and compute nodes in owned and third-party data centers worldwide.

What plans include access to the CDN product?

CDN is included as part of the Organization (Org) Plan. Customers who subscribe to the Org Plan can leverage CDN capabilities. This includes some base consumption with usage charges for data transfer and requests.

What are the target use cases for Distributed Cloud CDN?

The following are the use cases for Distributed Cloud CDN:

  1. Secure Apps Everywhere: WAAP + CDN – Mitigate web app attacks and vulnerabilities with comprehensive security controls, uniform policy, and observability. This includes simplified deployment and management of app security across environments.

  2. Modern Digital Experiences: Deliver modern dynamic experiences across multiple public and private clouds, edge locations, and on-premises environments.

  3. Easily Scales at the Edge: Increase performance by running workloads closer to end users and gear up for future growth.

Does F5 Distributed Cloud CDN support Optimization [e.g. compression, minification, transmux] for improved request load times?

Currently, there are no compression or minification capabilities.

Is there any public allowlist for CDN?

Yes. CDN has both allow and deny lists under security options.

Can we configure to block based on ASN?

No, blocking at this time is only based on geography or IP addresses.

How does CDN route content and optimize network for minimum latency?

The Distributed Cloud CDN will route requests to the most performant PoP for the end customer. The CDN makes use of intelligent load balancing (DNSLB, unicast IP per node) and avoids public internet congestion.

What does a customer need to take care of on their origin server with regards to firewall?

The Origin server(s) needs to have the Distributed Cloud IP addresses added to the allow list. See IP Address List.

How long does it take for a CDN Distribution to be configured?

Typically, less than 2 minutes.

If you do not purge the cache, how long will it take to refresh the DNS cache?

It will be equal to max-age configured in origin. The CDN always honors what is in the request header.

What versions of HTTP are supported?

HTTP and HTTPS, HTTP/1.1 (default), and HTTP/2.

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