An active buffer management technique for providing interactive functions in broadcast video-on-demand systems

Multicast delivery is an efficient approach to the provision of a video-on-demand (VoD) service. Interacting with the video stream is a desirable feature for users. However, it is a challenging task to provide the functionality in the multicast environment because a lot of users share multicast delivery channels. In this paper, we propose an active buffer management technique to provide interactive functions in broadcast VoD systems. In our scheme, the client can selectively prefetch segments from broadcast channels based on the observation of the play point in its local buffer. The content of the buffer is adjusted in such a way that the relative position of the play point is kept in the middle part of the buffer. Our simulations show that the active buffer management scheme can implement interactive actions through buffering with a high probability in a wide range of user interaction levels.     

Design and analysis of a look-ahead scheduling scheme to support pause-resume for video-on-demand applications

In a video-on-demand (VOD) system, subscribers can choose both the movie they wish to view and the time they wish to view it. In such an environment there are invariably hot videos which are requested by many viewers. The requirement that each viewer be able to independently pause the video at any instant and later resume the viewing with little delay can cause difficulties in batching viewers for each showing. Under batching, a single video stream is shared by multiple concurrent viewers and a resume request has to wait for additional stream capacity to become available before actual resumption can occur. The conventional approach to the support of on-demand pause-resume provides one video access stream to disks for each video request. This can greatly increase the disk arm requirements of a VOD system. In this paper, we propose a more efficient mechanism to support the pause-resume feature usinglook-ahead scheduling withlook-aside buffering. The idea is to use buffering to increase the number of concurrent viewers supportable. The concept of look-ahead scheduling is not to back up each viewer with a real stream capacity so he can pause and resume at any time, but rather with a (look-ahead) stream that is currently being used for another showing which is close to completion. Before the look-ahead stream becomes available, the pause and resume features have to be supported by the original stream through (look-aside) buffering of the missed content. It is shown via simulations that the proposed scheme can provide a substantially greater throughput than the approach without batching. Furthermore, for a given amount of buffer, the improvement in throughput grows more than linearly with the stream capacity of the server. In other words, the look-ahead stream scheduling scheme operates with good economy of scale because it is easier to form look-ahead streams for video servers with larger stream capacity.     

互联网上交互式视频技术与实现

介绍了在互联网上帝现交互式视频业务的关键技术和一个交互式视频点播与直播系统的实现。     

Buffer-Sharing Techniques in Service-Guaranteed Video Servers

Advances in networking and storage technology have made it possible to deliver on-demand services over networks such as the emerging video-on- demand (VOD) applications. Although a variety of studies have been focused on designing video servers suitable for VOD applications, the number of concurrent on-demand services supported by such servers is often limited by the I/O bandwidth of the storage systems. Recently, several researchers have focused on providing guaranteed services instead of on-demand services in a VOD system. A service is said to be guaranteed if every viewer can be served within a specified waiting time after the video has been subscribed. This paper describes a model called a buffer-sharing autonomy, which combines batching and bridging techniques to provide guaranteed services to VOD systems. We also describe how buffer-sharing techniques can be used in this model to provide the same services with fewer buffer resource through the use of playback-rate alteration. Additionally, in order to make buffer sharing efficient, it is important to group appropriate video streams together to share buffer resource. Four grouping policies are proposed for this purpose and the benefits yielded are also analyzed and compared. Finally, the results of our experiments show that the proposed buffer-sharing techniques promise the provision of guaranteed video services at low cost.     

Sjtums流媒体点播协议和点播系统设计

传统的MMS和RTSP点播协议只能点播其自有的wmv和rm文件格式,但其不能提供有效的针对屏幕的视频编解码器.该文设计了一种高效的CSMX屏幕编解码器,同时压缩视频、音频,生成了一种自有格式的多媒体课件.为支持点播,设计并实现了一种新型流媒体点播协议sjtums协议以及整个流媒体点播系统.该协议交互原语简洁,每个客户端与点播服务器之间只创建一个连接,交互原语采用同步方式收发,流媒体数据采用异步方式收发,点播服务器采用多线程方式设计.客户端解决了三路流媒体之间的同步,点播文件的缓存以及视频的优化显示等难题.经过系统仿真和实际测试使用,该系统能够支持大规模客户端,点播效果稳定流畅.该点播协议的实现对流媒体协议的研究有着重要的理论价值.     

Dynamic Buffer Management for Near Video-On-Demand Systems

Advances in networking and storage technology have made it possible to deliver on-demand services over networks such as the emerging video-on-demand (VOD) applications. A variety of studies have been focused on designing a video server suitable for VOD applications. However, the number of concurrent on-demand services supported by the server is often limited by the I/O bandwidth of the storage systems. This paper describes a discrete buffer sharing model which uses batching and buffer sharing techniques in video servers to support a large number of VOD services. Two operations, splitting and merging, enable the model to fully utilize system resources such as buffers and disk bandwidths. Moreover, this paper also introduces the concept of imprecise video viewing which assumes that a limited amount of quality loss is acceptable during video playback. Based upon this assumption, three shrinking strategies are explored to reduce buffer requirements. Finally, the results of experiments show that our methods perform better than traditional buffer management techniques for VOD systems.     

Exploring wait tolerance in effective batching for video-on-demand scheduling

In a video-on-demand (VOD) environment, batching requests for the same video to share a common video stream can lead to significant improvement in throughput. Using the wait tolerance characteristic that is commonly observed in viewers behavior, we introduce a new paradigm for scheduling in VOD systems. We propose and analyze two classes of scheduling schemes: the Max_Batch and Min_Idle schemes that provide two alternative ways for using a given stream capacity for effective batching. In making a video selection, the proposed schemes take into consideration the next stream completion time, as well as the viewer wait tolerance. We compared the proposed schemes with the two previously studied schemes: (1) first-come-first-served (FCFS) that schedules the video with the longest waiting request and (2) the maximum queue length (MQL) scheme that selects the video with the maximum number of waiting requests. We show through simulations that the proposed schemes substantially outperform FCFS and MQL in reducing the viewer turn-away probability, while maintaining a small average response time. In terms of system resources, we show that, by exploiting the viewers wait tolerance, the proposed schemes can significantly reduce the server capacity required for achieving a given level of throughput and turn-away probability as compared to the FCFS and MQL. Furthermore, our study shows that an aggressive use of the viewer wait tolerance for batching may not yield the best strategy, and that other factors, such as the resulting response time, fairness, and loss of viewers, should be taken into account.     

可扩展的VOD服务器系统

提出了分布式可扩展的VOD系统结构，扩展性的研究能够提供更多的并发流服务。从系统结构及工作流程、基于CORBA的通讯、负载均衡及存储技术等方面论述了系统的扩展性。测试结果表明，该系统可以适应不同规模的VOD应用。     

Delivery of compressed videos from video servers employing cycle-based data-block retrieval discipline

The significant frame size variability exhibited in the compressed videos imposes a great challenge on network delivery. In this paper we propose an efficient flow control scheme, employed in the peer stations (i.e., servers and clients), for delivery of prestored compressed videos in a video-on-demand (VOD) system. This scheme resorts to an off-line analysis on the video frame sizes and server properties for figuring out the necessary buffer space and network bandwidth. The server platform of particular interest obeys a cycle-based data-block retrieval discipline, which is an essential technique to reduce the disk seek time for leveraging the disk throughput for supporting a large number of concurrent video accesses. Such a discipline is taken into account here to guarantee smooth delivery of variable-bit-rate videos. In run-time a server-driven control model is in use, where a server performs the primary flow control task, without relying on any feedback from clients. The scheme has been implemented in our prototype VOD system to support both unicast- and multicast communication paradigms under an RSVP-enabled network.     

Constant bit rate network transmission of variable bit rate continuous media in Video-On-Demand servers

Multimedia computing is rapidly emerging as the next generation standard for human-computer interaction. One class of multimedia applications that has been gaining much attention is the real-time display of continuous media data such as video and audio, commonly known as Video-On-Demand (VOD) service. Although advances in computer and network technologies have made VOD service feasible, providing guaranteed quality, real-time video delivery still poses many technical challenges. One such challenge involves the transmission of continuous media traffic over high-speed networks.In this paper, we present an algorithm for determining the minimum buffer requirement for avoiding overflow or underflow at the client video display process, allowing the network scheduler at the VOD server to enforce a constant bit rate delivery of variable bit rate encoded continuous media. This strategy results in reduced congestion and cell loss at the network switch, and in simplified admission control parameters. Initial results indicate that buffer requirements for typical video streams range from 3.7 to 14.6 Megabytes, which is acceptable by today's multimedia PC standards. Further, we show that this approach increases the number of streams that can be multiplexed by a factor of 4.6 to 9.9 times when compared to peak and 90%-of-peak bandwidth allocation strategies.ECE Dept., Syracuse University, Syracuse, USACIS Dept., Syracuse University, Syracuse, USA     

预售策略下的快速时尚品物流分销网络双层规划模型

为解决预售策略下的快速时尚品物流分销网络的选址与分配问题,将最小化网络运作成本作为决策目标,构建了反映网络销售商与顾客决策行为的双层规划模型。模型充分考虑了决策双方的共同利益,并利用交互式模糊算法来确定中央仓库和第三方物流企业的选择、分配及服务方案。通过实例分析,既验证了算法的可行性,同时也表明了中央仓库的选址应尽量靠近需求点密集的区域,网络销售商应提供少量第三方物流服务企业供顾客选择。     

An alternative paradigm for scalable on-demand applications:evaluating and deploying the Interactive Multimedia Jukebox

Straightforward, one-way delivery of audio/video through television sets has existed for many decades. In the 1980s, new services like pay-per-view and video-on-demand were touted as the “killer applications” for interactive TV. However, the hype quickly died away, leaving only hard technical problems and costly systems. As an alternative, we propose a new jukebox paradigm offering flexibility in how programs are requested and scheduled for playout. The jukebox scheduling paradigm offers flexibility ranging from complete viewer control (true video-on-demand), to complete service provider control (traditional broadcast TV). We first describe our proposed jukebox paradigm and relate it to other on-demand paradigms. We also describe several critical research issues, including the one-to-many delivery of content, program scheduling policies, server location, and the provision of advanced services like VCR-style interactivity and advanced reservations. In addition, we present our implementation of a jukebox-based service called the Interactive Multimedia Jukebox (IMJ). The IMJ provides scheduling via the World Wide Web (WWW) and content delivery via the Multicast Backbone (MBone). For the IMJ, we present usage statistics collected during the past couple of years. Furthermore, using this data and a simulation environment, we show that jukebox systems have the potential to scale to very large numbers of viewers     

连续媒体流的理论模型及缓冲对策研究

视频点播服务（ＶＯＤ）是当前交互式多媒体ＩＭＭ应用中的热门方向,而视频流的缓冲、控制策略是视频服务技术研究中相当关键的环节。本文试图采用全局的观点,利用恰当的数学工具建立了在网络并行下的请求流工作模型,并结合缓冲机制得到了一些关于媒体流服务的重要结论。同时,结合媒体服务的工作序列,给出了一些优化流控和数据缓冲的方法和策略,最后通过试验验证了该理论模型和结论的可行性。     

一种基于P2P的视频点播系统的研究与设计

视频点播(VOD)是一种以用户为主导的音视频信息系统。传统的VOD系统多是C/S模式采用服务器机群或者代理缓存的方式来实现,这会带来较大的硬件和管理开销,系统扩展性也难以得到保证。文中提出了一种基于P2P结构的视频点播的设计方案,分析了采用P2P技术以后视频点播系统对于节点闲散资源的利用和保证播放质量等方面的优势,并探讨了在系统设计与实现中的相关技术与方法,包括基于本体的语义搜索、媒体资源定位与节点负载均衡三方面。     

Using rotational mirrored declustering for replica placement in a disk-array-based video server

In a video-on-demand (VOD) environment, disk arrays are often used to support the disk bandwidth requirement. This can pose serious problems on available disk bandwidth upon disk failure. In this paper, we explore the approach of replicating frequently accessed movies to provide high data bandwidth and fault tolerance required in a disk-array-based video server. An isochronous continuous video stream imposes different requirements from a random access pattern on databases or files. Explicitly, we propose a new replica placement method, called rotational mirrored declustering (RMD), to support high data availability for disk arrays in a VOD environment. In essence, RMD is similar to the conventional mirrored declustering in that replicas are stored in different disk arrays. However, it is different from the latter in that the replica placements in different disk arrays under RMD are properly rotated. Combining the merits of prior chained and mirrored declustering methods, RMD is particularly suitable for storing multiple movie copies to support VOD applications. To assess the performance of RMD, we conduct a series of experiments by emulating the storage and delivery of movies in a VOD system. Our results show that RMD consistently outperforms the conventional methods in terms of load-balancing and fault-tolerance capability after disk failure, and is deemed a viable approach to supporting replica placement in a disk-array-based video server.     

Dynamic real-time scheduling strategies for interactive continuous media servers

In this paper, we propose and study a dynamic approach to schedule real-time requests in a video-on-demand (VOD) server. Providing quality of service in such servers requires uninterrupted and on-time retrieval of motion video data. VOD services and multimedia applications further require access to the storage devices to be shared among multiple concurrent streams. Most of the previous VOD scheduling approaches use limited run-time,0 information and thus cannot exploit the potential capacity of the system fully. Our approach improves throughput by making use of run-time information to relax admission control. It maintains excellent quality of service under varying playout rates by observing deadlines and by reallocating resources to guarantee continuous service. It also reduces start-up latency by beginning service as soon as it is detected that deadlines of all real-time requests will be met. We establish safe conditions for greedy admission, dynamic control of disk read sizes, fast initial service, and sporadic services. We conduct thorough simulations over a wide range of buffer capacities, load settings, and over varying playout rates to demonstrate the significant improvements in quality of service, throughput and start-up latency of our approach relative to a static approach.     

Optimized Periodic Broadcast of Nonlinear Media

Conventional video consists of a single sequence of video frames. During a client's playback period, frames are viewed sequentially from some specified starting point. The fixed frame ordering of conventional video enables efficient scheduled broadcast delivery, as well as efficient near on-demand delivery to large numbers of concurrent clients through use of periodic broadcast protocols in which the video file is segmented and transmitted on multiple channels. This paper considers the problem of devising scalable protocols for near on-demand delivery of “nonlinear” media files whose content may have a tree or graph, rather than linear, structure. Such media allows personalization of the media playback according to individual client preferences. We formulate a mathematical model for determination of the optimal periodic broadcast protocol for nonlinear media with piecewise-linear structures. Our objective function allows differing weights to be placed on the startup delays required for differing paths through the media. Studying a number of simple nonlinear structures we provide insight into the characteristics of the optimal solution. For cases in which the cost of solving the optimization model is prohibitive, we propose and evaluate an efficient approximation algorithm.      

A scalable cost-effective video broadcasting system for on-demand video services

Recent years have seen intensive investigations of Periodic Broadcast, an attractive paradigm for broadcasting popular videos. In this paradigm, the server simply broadcasts segments of a popular video periodically on a number of communication channels. A large number of clients can be served simultaneously by tuning into these channels to receive segments of the requested video. A playback can begin as soon as a client can access the first segment. Periodic Broadcast guarantees a small maximum service delay regardless of the number of concurrent clients. Existing periodic broadcast techniques are typically evaluated through analytical assessment. While these results are good performance indicators, they cannot demonstrate subtle implementation difficulty that can prohibit these techniques from practical deployment. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a video broadcasting system based on our periodic broadcast scheme called Striping Broadcast. Our experience with the system confirms that the system offers a low service delay close to its analytical guaranteed delay while requiring small storage space and low download bandwidth at a client.     

视频技术在网络播放flash课件中的应用

利用动画制作多媒体课件说明原理和过程,在许多情况比录像的效果更好。使用Flash视频制作多媒体课件可以用单机也可以添加到网页中播放,它将视频与数据、图形、声音和动态交互式控件融合在一起,将嵌入式视频与累进式FLV结合,制作的课件文件非常得小,便于上传和网络播放。     

P2P流媒体点播的缓存机制研究

基于P2P的流媒体点播系统,由于实时点播和拖动等VCR操作没有得到有效支持,以及用户不能随意发布节点等原因,没有得到广泛应用。本文提出了一种基于混合P2P的流媒体点播模型TTVOD,讨论了模型的缓存机制,提高了数据冗余度和分发性能,最后通过实验验证了模型的有效性。