An experimental analysis of digital video library servers

Much work on video servers has concentrated on movies on demand, in which a relatively small number of titles are viewed and users are given basic VCR-style controls. This paper concentrates on analyzing video server performance for non-linear access applications. In particular, we study two non-linear video applications: video libraries, in which users select from a large collection of videos and may be interested in viewing only a small part of the title; and video walk-throughs, in which users can move through an image-mapped representation of a space. We present a characterization of the workloads of these applications. Our simulation studies show that video server architectures developed for movies on demand can be adapted to video library usage, though caching is less effective and the server can support a smaller user population for non-linear video applications. We also show that video walk-throughs require extremely large amounts of RAM buffering to provide adequate performance for even a small number of users.     

Video placement and configuration of distributed video servers on cable TV networks

A large-scale, distributed video-on-demand (VOD) system allows geographically dispersed residential and business users to access video services, such as movies and other multimedia programs or documents on demand from video servers on a high-speed network. In this paper, we first demonstrate through analysis and simulation the need for a hierarchical architecture for the VOD distribution network.We then assume a hierarchical architecture, which fits the existing tree topology used in today's cable TV (CATV) hybrid fiber/coaxial (HFC) distribution networks. We develop a model for the video program placement, configuration, and performance evaluation of such systems. Our approach takes into account the user behavior, the fact that the user requests are transmitted over a shared channel before reaching the video server containing the requested program, the fact that the input/output (I/O) capacity of the video servers is the costlier resource, and finally the communication cost. In addition, our model employs batching of user requests at the video servers. We study the effect of batching on the performance of the video servers and on the quality of service (QoS) delivered to the user, and we contribute dynamic batching policies which improve server utilization, user QoS, and lower the servers' cost. The evaluation is based on an extensive analytical and simulation study.     

Assignment of Movies to Heterogeneous Video Servers

A video-on-demand (VOD) system provides an electronic video rental service to geographically distributed users. It can adopt multiple servers to serve many users concurrently. As a VOD system is being used and evolved, its servers probably become heterogeneous. For example, if a new server is added to expand the VOD system or replace a failed server, the new server may be faster with a larger storage size. This paper investigates how to assign movies to heterogeneous servers in order to minimize the blocking probability. It is proven that this assignment problem is NP-hard, and a lower bound is derived on the minimal blocking probability. The following approach is proposed for assignment: 1) problem relaxation—a relaxed assignment problem is formulated and solved to determine the ideal load that each server should handle, and 2) goal programming—an assignment and reassignment are performed iteratively while fulfilling all the constraints so that the load handled by each server is close to the ideal one. This approach is generic and applicable to many assignment problems. This approach is adopted to design two specific algorithms for movie assignment with and without replication. It is demonstrated that these algorithms can find optimal or close-to-optimal assignments.     

Disk scheduling in video editing systems

Modern video servers support both video-on-demand and nonlinear editing applications. Video-on-demand servers enable the user to view video clips or movies from a video database, while nonlinear editing systems enable the user to manipulate the content of the video database. Applications such as video and news editing systems require that the underlying storage server be able to concurrently record live broadcast information, modify prerecorded data, and broadcast an authored presentation. A multimedia storage server that efficiently supports such a diverse group of activities constitutes the focus of this study. A novel real-time disk scheduling algorithm is presented that treats both read and write requests in a homogeneous manner in order to ensure that their deadlines are met. Due to real-time demands of movie viewing, read requests have to be fulfilled within certain deadlines; otherwise, they are considered lost. Since the data to be written into disk is stored in main memory buffers, write requests can be postponed until critical read requests are processed. However, write requests still have to be processed within reasonable delays and without the possibility of indefinite postponement. This is due to the physical constraint of the limited size of the main memory write buffers. The new algorithm schedules both read and write requests appropriately, to minimize the amount of disk reads that do not meet their presentation deadlines, and to avoid indefinite postponement and large buffer sizes in the case of disk writes. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm offers low violations of read deadlines, reduces waiting time for lower priority disk requests, and improves the throughput of the storage server by enhancing the utilization of available disk bandwidth     

Performance analysis of a pull-based parallel video server

In conventional video-on-demand systems, video data are stored in a video server for delivery to multiple receivers over a communications network. The video server's hardware limits the maximum storage capacity as well as the maximum number of video sessions that can concurrently be delivered. Clearly, these limits will eventually be exceeded by the growing need for better video quality and larger user population. This paper studies a parallel video server architecture that exploits server parallelism to achieve incremental scalability. First, unlike data partition and replication, the architecture employs data striping at the server level to achieve fine-grain load balancing across multiple servers. Second, a client-pull service model is employed to eliminate the need for interserver synchronization. Third, an admission-scheduling algorithm is proposed to further control the instantaneous load at each server so that linear scalability can be achieved. This paper analyzes the performance of the architecture by deriving bounds for server service delay, client buffer requirement, prefetch delay, and scheduling delay. These performance metrics and design tradeoffs are further evaluated using numerical examples. Our results show that the proposed parallel video server architecture can be linearly scaled up to more concurrent users simply by adding more servers and redistributing the video data among the servers     

Load sharing in distributed multimedia-on-demand systems

Service providers have begun to offer multimedia-on-demand services to residential estates by installing isolated, small-scale multimedia servers at individual estates. Such an arrangement allows the service providers to operate without relying on a highspeed, large-capacity metropolitan area network, which is still not available in many countries. Unfortunately, installing isolated servers can incur very high server costs, as each server requires spare bandwidth to cope with fluctuations in user demand. The authors explore the feasibility of linking up several small multimedia servers to a (limited-capacity) network, and allowing servers with idle retrieval bandwidth to help out servers that are temporarily overloaded; the goal is to minimize the waiting time for service to begin. We identify four characteristics of load sharing in a distributed multimedia system that differentiate it from load balancing in a conventional distributed system. We then introduce a GWQ load sharing algorithm that fits and exploits these characteristics; it puts all servers' pending requests in a global queue, from which a server with idle capacity obtains additional jobs. The performance of the algorithm is captured by an analytical model, which we validate through simulations. Both the analytical and simulation models show that the algorithm vastly reduces wait times at the servers. The analytical model also provides guidelines for capacity planning. Finally, we propose an enhanced GWQ+L algorithm that allows a server to reclaim active local requests that are being serviced remotely. Simulation experiments indicate that the scheduling decisions of GWQ+L are optimal, i.e., it enables the distributed servers to approximate the performance of a large centralized server     

Efficient Movie Retrieval Strategies for Movie-on-Demand Multimedia Services on Distributed Networks

In this paper, for a network-based multimedia Video/Movie-on-demand(VoD/MoD) service, we design and analyze efficient retrieval strategies to minimize both the access times of the movies and the block rates. We consider a heterogeneous set of servers and a generic network topology in which clients can request for movies from any site. We design and analyze a multiple servers retrieval strategy (MSRS) to retrieve the movies requested by the clients and present a rigorous analysis on its performance with respect to access times of the requested movies and the block rates. A generalized approach of MSRS is designed in a judicious manner using a two-step approach. In the first step, we partition the available bandwidth among the requested movies and in the second step, we derive optimal portions of the movies to be retrieved from each of the servers for each movie, based on allocated bandwidths in the first step. Thus, with the optimal playback portions of the movies using aggregate retrieval bandwidth from several servers, the access times of the movies are minimized. In the first step, in addition to the access times, we minimize the block rates by balancing the total accesses/requests among the servers. In generating the retrieval schedule, our scheme utilizes the available bandwidth (resource) among the servers and guarantees to use less buffer space than a single server retrieval strategy (SSRS). With this two-step approach, a complete flexibility is provided in tuning the access times of the movies and also shown to be robust to any variations in the user access rates of the movies, in reality. Rigorous simulation experiments are presented to observe the performance of MSRS with respect to some important system dependent parameters. Comparing with SSRS, MSRS shows better performance in the simulation.     

Application-Layer Protocol for Collaborative Multimedia Presentations

Many multimedia presentation applications involve retrieval of objects from more than one collaborating server. Presentations of objects from different collaborating servers might be interdependent. For instance, we can consider distributed video servers where blocks of movies are distributed over a set of servers. Here, blocks of a movie from different video servers have to be retrieved and presented continuously without any gaps in the presentation. Such applications first need an estimate of the available network resources to each of the collaborating server in order to identify a schedule for retrieving the objects composing the presentation. A collaborating server can suggest modifications of the retrieval schedule depending on its load. These modifications can potentially affect the retrieval schedule for other collaborating applications. Hence, a sequence of negotiations have to be carried out with the collaborating servers in order to commit for a retrieval schedule of the objects composing the multimedia presentation. In this paper, we propose an application sub-layer protocol, Resource Lock Commit Protocol (RLCP), for handling the negotiation and commitment of the resources required for a collaborative multimedia presentation application.     

影响多媒体服务器性能的关键因素研究

在构建大规模视频服务系统时 ,基于层次型多服务器群的体系结构在吞吐率、可扩展性、经济性等方面都有其突出的优势 ,尤其适合于在因特网上的应用 .但是 ,要充分发挥和提高视频服务系统的性能 ,还要针对一些主要的瓶颈(如服务器磁盘 I/ O带宽与网络带宽 ) ,解决好一系列的问题 .本文分析了影响多媒体视频服务器性能的一些主要因素 ,如视频服务器的体系结构、服务器与客户端之间的数据传送方式、媒体数据在视频服务器存储子系统中的分布与放置方式、对磁盘访问请求的调度、单服务器中的缓存及多服务器间协同缓存的管理、接入控制策略、流调度策略等 ,这些因素对视频服务器的性能与吞吐率有着极大的影响 .本文还介绍了一些适用于大规模视频服务系统的性能优化技术 ,如广播、批处理等流调度策略 .在构建视频服务器系统时 ,只有综合考虑这些因素 ,才能真正提高服务器乃至整个视频服务系统的吞吐率 ,并较好地满足客户的 Qo S要求     

一种以负载平衡为目标的分布式VOD系统视频文件存储方法

本文在研究一种分布式视频服务器负载平衡算法的基础上,引入了服务器端视频文件分盘存储的思想.通过仿真实验分析表明,对视频文件分盘存储能够降低系统的服务拒绝率,更进一步地提高了视频服务器效能.     

Continuous spatial assignment of moving users

Consider a set of servers and a set of users, where each server has a coverage region (i.e., an area of service) and a capacity (i.e., a maximum number of users it can serve). Our task is to assign every user to one server subject to the coverage and capacity constraints. To offer the highest quality of service, we wish to minimize the average distance between users and their assigned server. This is an instance of a well-studied problem in operations research, termed optimal assignment. Even though there exist several solutions for the static case (where user locations are fixed), there is currently no method for dynamic settings. In this paper, we consider the continuous assignment problem (CAP), where an optimal assignment must be constantly maintained between mobile users and a set of servers. The fact that the users are mobile necessitates real-time reassignment so that the quality of service remains high (i.e., their distance from their assigned servers is minimized). The large scale and the time-critical nature of targeted applications require fast CAP solutions. We propose an algorithm that utilizes the geometric characteristics of the problem and significantly accelerates the initial assignment computation and its subsequent maintenance. Our method applies to different cost functions (e.g., average squared distance) and to any Minkowski distance metric (e.g., Euclidean, L ₁ norm, etc.).     

Reducing bandwidth requirement for delivering video over wide area networks with proxy server

Due to the high bandwidth requirement and rate variability of compressed video, delivering video across wide area networks (WANs) is a challenging issue. Proxy servers have been used to reduce network congestion and improve client access time on the Internet by caching passing data. We investigate ways to store or stage partial video in proxy servers to reduce the network bandwidth requirement over WAN. A client needs to access a portion of the video from a proxy server over a local area network (LAN) and the rest from a central server across a WAN. Therefore, client buffer requirement and video synchronization are to be considered. We study the tradeoffs between client buffer, storage requirement on the proxy server, and bandwidth requirement over WAN. Given a video delivery rate for the WAN, we propose several frame staging selection algorithms to determine the video frames to be stored in the proxy server. A scheme called chunk algorithm, which partitions a video into different segments (chunks of frames) with alternating chunks stored in the proxy server, is shown to offer the best tradeoff. We also investigate an efficient way to utilize client buffer when the combination of video streams from WAN and LAN is considered.     

基于CATV网络视频服务器的数据实时性保证策略

随着计算机性能的提高和网络带宽的增加，以及视频压缩编码技术的进步，逐渐使提供数字视频服务成为可能．在基于有线电视系统的视频服务器中，数据实时性完全由视频服务器决定．通用PC服务器输出数据实时性较低，难以满足视频服务器要求．本文对通用PC服务器进行软硬件扩展，设计一个数据传输控制机制，提高输出数据实时性，实现一个由通用PC服务器构建的视频服务器．     

CEA: A Cyclic Expansion Algorithm for data migration in parallel video servers

Parallel video servers can achieve highly storage-saving and granularly load-balancing, but they suffer from a system expansion problem. As the number of users continuously increases, the system inevitably needs to expand the number of video servers. However, the expansion of a parallel video server system is not as simple as that of a replicated video server system. Hence, this work develops an efficient expansion algorithm, called the Cyclic Expansion Algorithm (CEA), for parallel video servers. The proposed CEA algorithm has several good features. First, the data layout of each video content exhibits periodicity. Consequently, the meta-data size of each video and the complexity of the CEA algorithm are reduced. Second, the number of required data movements during a system expansion is optimized. Third, the total number of required XOR recomputations for updating parity blocks during an expansion is also minimized. Additionally, the new CEA can be applied to a variety of distributed storage systems, such as the cloud-based storage systems using striping and parity check techniques.     

支持QoS确保的存储服务器服务资源分配算法

在电子商务、工业制造领域中,具有海量存储与高I/O吞吐能力的数据存储服务器得到了广泛应用。数据存储服务器提供QoS支持对应用需求而言很重要,但是实践中却很少有数据存储服务器提供了QoS支持。提出了一种支持服务质量区分并对高优先级用户提供服务质量保证的存储服务区服务资源分配算法,由于对高优先级用户请求与低优先级用户请求采用了可变服务质量区分因子,因而算法在提供服务优先级区分与确保高优先级请求服务质量的同时,减小了低优先级请求的请求丢弃率,同时最大化了服务资源利用率。     

视频服务器性能测试研究

视频点播是能向用户提供视频信息服务的应用系统,视频服务器是其中最关键的部分。随着技术的发展,用户对视频服务器的性能要求越来越高。但由于其实现方式上的差异,研究者并没有对视频服务器性能评价指标和测试方法形成共识。对此,文章提出并分析了视频服务器的各种评价指标,并据此给出了一个测试软件的实现方案。     

A generic tool to federate WAN servers

On a Wide Area Network (WAN), services are more efficient if they are supported by several servers located near their respective clients. In this article, we present a generic tool which facilitates the federation of servers over a WAN. This tool is in charge of both dynamically managing the federation and propagating requests to all the federation’s servers. It may be applied to any kind of widely available service. As far as we know, there is no generic tool that can be used by WAN services to federate their servers. We present the benefits these services could derive from our federation tool. The federation adapts dynamically in case of server addition, server failure and network topology modification. Each server has a global view of the federation which is used especially to propagate requests to the federation. We present the general model and the design of the tool. The tool is built upon group communication objects. And we present some implementation issues in a CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) environment. The tool is generic in that it may be applied to any service. In this paper we show how a specific service may use the generic federation tool especially to propagate typed requests. Finally, we present an application of this tool for federating CORBA traders.     

Design a progressive video caching policy for video proxy servers

Proxy servers have been used to cache web objects to alleviate the load of the web servers and to reduce network congestion on the Internet. In this paper, a central video server is connected to a proxy server via wide area networks (WANs) and the proxy server can reach many clients via local area networks (LANs). We assume a video can be either entirely or partially cached in the proxy to reduce WAN bandwidth consumption. Since the storage space and the sustained disk I/O bandwidth are limited resources in the proxy, how to efficiently utilize these resources to maximize the WAN bandwidth reduction is an important issue. We design a progressive video caching policy in which each video can be cached at several levels corresponding to cached data sizes and required WAN bandwidths. For a video, the proxy server determines to cache a smaller amount of data at a lower level or to gradually accumulate more data to reach a higher level. The proposed progressive caching policy allows the proxy to adjust caching amount for each video based on its resource condition and the user access pattern. We investigate the scenarios in which the access pattern is priorly known or unknown and the effectiveness of the caching policy is evaluated.     

Ensuring latency targets in multiclass Web servers

Two recent advances have resulted in significant improvements in Web server quality-of-service. First, both centralized and distributed Web servers can provide isolation among service classes by fairly distributing system resources. Second, session admission control can protect classes from performance degradation due to overload. The goal of this work is to design a general "front-end" algorithm that uses these two building blocks to support a new Web service model, namely, multiclass services which control response latencies to within prespecified targets. Our key technique is to devise a general service abstraction to adaptively control not only the latency of a particular class, but also to bound the interclass relationships. In this way, we capture the extent to which classes are isolated or share system resources (as determined by the server architecture and system internals) and hence their effects on each other's QoS. For example, if the server provides class isolation (i.e., a minimum fraction of system resources independent of other classes), yet also allows a class to utilize unused resources from other classes, the algorithm infers and exploits this behavior, without an explicit low level model of the server. Thus, as new functionalities are incorporated into Web servers, the approach naturally exploits their properties to efficiently satisfy the classes' performance targets. We validate the scheme with trace driven simulations.     

Proxy-assisted periodic broadcast for video streaming with multiple servers

Large scale video streaming over the Internet requires a large amount of resources such as server I/O bandwidth and network bandwidth. A number of video delivery techniques can be used to lower these requirements. Periodic broadcast by a central server combined with proxy caching offers a significant reduction of the aggregate network and server I/O bandwidth usage. However, the resources available to a single server are still limited. In this paper we propose a system with multiple geographically distributed servers. The problem of multiple servers for periodic broadcast is quite different from the problem of object location for multiple web servers. Multiple servers offer increased amount of resources and service availability and may potentially allow a further reduction of network bandwidth usage. On the other hand, the benefit of periodic broadcast mostly comes from high demand videos. With multiple servers holding a video, the demand of the video at each server is reduced. Therefore, it is a challenge to use multiple servers efficiently. We first analyze the dependence of the resource requirements on the number and locations of the servers. Based on the character of the function describing such a dependence, we formulate and solve the problem of video location and delivery, in a way that minimizes resource usage. We explore a trade-off between network and I/O bandwidth requirements. We evaluate our proposed solutions through a number of tests.