Akamai Secure Token

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You do not need to write any programs to make use of this authentication.

The Akamai secure token is a basic protection solution for video and audio content hosted by Akamai. Contact your Customer Support Manager to set up an Akamai token. The Akamai token provides a basic level of protection and allows content (video and audio) to be played from an authorized account. The policy information in the token determines what account checks are performed. The authorization mechanism grants or denies playback of video or audio content based on any one of the following factors:

  • Presence or absence of a valid token
  • Viewer’s IP address
  • Source URL of the video
  • Token expiration time
Note: Ooyala supports Akamai Secure Tokens only for Live (remote assets) streams and does not support VOD with our default Content Delivery Service.

Ooyala generates a short-lived token that is then sent to Akamai to unlock an asset for streaming. This process is conducted entirely by Ooyala; no programming is required.

The following steps describe the how Akamai secure token authorization works:
  1. The Akamai token authentication process is started when a viewer goes to a website and clicks a playback button for an asset in an Ooyala player.
  2. The player sends a token request to the Ooyala server.
  3. The Ooyala server determines if the provider has an Akamai account set up through Ooyala.
  4. If the account is set up and enabled, the Akamai authorization token is appended to the stream connection and returned to the player. The viewer is now able to playback the video or audio file.
  5. If the Akamai token is not returned, then the user receives an error message indicating that lack of authorization for playback.

Token Expiration Time

The generated token is valid for 90 seconds (30 seconds + an assumed 60 second clock skew). This duration is based on standard Akamai recommendations.

System Requirements

Ooyala Player supports the Akamai token, with the same supported browsers as those supported by the Ooyala player, including Flash-based players (Akamai token authorization works with ActionScript for Flash).