A disk-based storage architecture for movie on demand servers

摘要

Recent advances in storage technology provides an effective way to store video in digital and compressed form. This, coupled with the recent dramatic increase in the bandwidth of networks, make it possible now to provide to viewers “movies on demand”, thereby eliminating the inflexibility inherent in todays broadcast cable systems. A movie on demand (MOD) server is a computer system that stores movies in compressed digital form and provides support for different portions of compressed movie data to be accessed and transmitted concurrently. Such a server not only enables viewers to watch a movie at any time they desire, but also enables them to apply VCR operations like pause, resume, fast-forward and rewind to the movies they are currently watching. In this paper, we present a disk-based storage architecture for a MOD server. We present a clever strategy for striping movies that enables simultaneous access and transmission of different portions of a movie. We also present a wide range of schemes for implementing VCR-like functions including fast-forward, rewind and pause.