An efficient disk-array-based server design for a multicast video streaming system

Abstract

Recently, a number of researchers have started to investigate new video-on-demand (VoD) architectures using batching, patching and periodic broadcasting. These architectures, compared to traditional unicast VoD systems, are much more scalable and can serve thousands or even millions of clients concurrently. Nevertheless, existing studies are usually focused on architectural issues. The problem of designing an efficient server to implement these new multicast VoD architectures has received little attention. While existing server designs using round-based schedulers can still be used, results show that such designs are suboptimal as they do not exploit the characteristics of fixed-schedule periodic broadcasting channels. We address this challenge by presenting an efficient server design for a recent multicast VoD architecture called Super-Scalar Video-on-Demand (SS-VoD). Results show that the efficient server design can increase the system capacity by 60% compared to traditional video server designs. We present details of this new server design, derives a performance model, and analyzes it using numerical results.