Interactive Video-On-Demand Systems

Addressing issues in scheduling and management of resources in an interactive continuous-media (such as audio and video) server, this text emphasizes dynamic and run-time strategies for resource scheduling and management. Such strategies provide effective tools for supporting interactivity with on-line users who require the system to be responsive in serving their requests, and whose needs and actions vary frequently over time. With an emphasis on responsiveness and transient performance, this book elaborates on dynamic strategies for managing and scheduling resources in Video-on-Demand/Multimedia systems. The volume presents a detailed analysis of the start-up and departure of streams. It gives a comprehensive evaluation of various techniques as workloads are varied in multiple dimensions (including arrival rate, data rate and length of play). The text collectively addresses multiple issues including QoS, throughput, responsiveness and efficiency. The solutions discussed in this volume should be particularly valuable to practitioners who are building a digital library, interactive multimedia and hypermedia servers. It should also be of interest to researchers, practitioners and educators in the field of multimedia systems, and may be used for advanced courses on multimedia systems and Video-on-Demand servers.