| List of Figures | p. xi |
| List of Tables | p. xix |
| Preface | p. xxi |
| Acknowledgments | p. xxvii |
| Distributed Technologies for Multimedia Retrieval Over Networks | p. 1 |
| Video on Demand: The Challenge and Contemporary Solutions | p. 1 |
| General Multimedia Storage and Retrieval Architectures | p. 3 |
| Multimedia servers: A resource management perspective | p. 3 |
| Client-Server VoD system | p. 6 |
| Designing an admission control algorithm: Single Server multiple clients system | p. 7 |
| The Fellini Multimedia storage server: Brief case study | p. 10 |
| RAID Array Technology: A Useful Insight | p. 11 |
| Related Network Technologies | p. 13 |
| Scalable Video | p. 20 |
| Are SANs an Efficient Solution? | p. 22 |
| SANs: A brief discussion on salient features | p. 24 |
| SANS& MSR Technology: a handshake? | p. 26 |
| Concluding Remarks | p. 28 |
| Multiple Servers Retrieval Strategy: Data Partitioning Approach | p. 29 |
| Introduction to Multiple Server Technology | p. 29 |
| Network architecture | p. 31 |
| Distinct advantages in using Multiple Server Retrieval | p. 32 |
| Problem Definition and Preliminary Remarks | p. 33 |
| Motivating example | p. 34 |
| Some definitions | p. 36 |
| Single Installment Retrieval Policy | p. 37 |
| Homogeneous channels | p. 39 |
| Effect of sequencing on the access time | p. 39 |
| Multi-installment Servicing Policy | p. 41 |
| Recursive equations and solution methodology | p. 41 |
| Homogeneous channels | p. 43 |
| Discussions on MSR Strategy | p. 46 |
| Concluding Remarks | p. 51 |
| Supporting Multiple Clients: Channel Partitioning Approach | p. 55 |
| Tuning MSR Scheme for Multiple Clients: Issues and Challenges | p. 55 |
| System Model | p. 57 |
| Retrieval process | p. 57 |
| About the TGS server | p. 57 |
| Some terminology and performance metric | p. 60 |
| Design of the TGS Server | p. 63 |
| Task generation strategy | p. 64 |
| Constraints imposed by the allowed start times of retrieval | p. 68 |
| Movie retrieval scheduling strategy | p. 75 |
| Performance Study | p. 82 |
| Simulation experiments | p. 83 |
| Performance comparison | p. 85 |
| Concluding Remarks | p. 88 |
| An Alternative Retrieval Strategy: A Play-While-Retrieve Approach | p. 93 |
| Service Model and Preliminary Remarks | p. 94 |
| Description of the strategy | p. 95 |
| Some basic definitions | p. 98 |
| Design of Movie Retrieval Strategies | p. 99 |
| Single installment strategy | p. 99 |
| Multi-installment strategy | p. 103 |
| Buffer Management at Client Sites | p. 111 |
| Analysis on buffer occupancy | p. 111 |
| Buffer size availability constraints | p. 115 |
| Performance Evaluation of PWR: Single and Multi-installment Strategies | p. 118 |
| Behavior of access time | p. 119 |
| Quantifying client buffer requirements | p. 122 |
| Effect of load balancing | p. 125 |
| Concluding Remarks | p. 127 |
| Some open-ended issues | p. 128 |
| Scheduling Over Unreliable Channels | p. 131 |
| Nothing Is Certain But Death And Taxes! | p. 131 |
| A Refined Model | p. 131 |
| CBR Case | p. 134 |
| Single-Installment Case | p. 134 |
| Multi-Installment Case | p. 140 |
| VBR Case | p. 143 |
| Optimum Server Ordering | p. 145 |
| Determining the Optimum Relaxation Parameter c | p. 150 |
| Coupling the Relaxation Parameter c and the Number of Installments M | p. 156 |
| Simulation Study | p. 157 |
| Concluding Remarks | p. 164 |
| Adapting to Network Variability | p. 169 |
| Relaxing the constraints is not enough | p. 169 |
| Dynamic Schedule Adaptation | p. 169 |
| Single Installment Revisited | p. 172 |
| Simulation Study | p. 175 |
| Discrete Event Simulation Study | p. 182 |
| Concluding Remarks | p. 186 |
| Fault-Tolerance Analysis for Multiple Servers Movie Retrieval Strategy | p. 189 |
| What can go Wrong with an MSR strategy? | p. 189 |
| Definitions, notations, terminology | p. 191 |
| Some remarks | p. 193 |
| Revisiting the Design and Analysis of MSR Strategy with Server Reliability | p. 194 |
| Effect of sequencing | p. 196 |
| Failure-Recovery Analysis | p. 199 |
| Solution using a deterministic approach | p. 199 |
| Solution using a probabilistic approach | p. 202 |
| Performance Evaluation and Discussions | p. 204 |
| Concluding Remarks | p. 211 |
| An Agent Driven Practical MSR System: JINI Technology | p. 215 |
| Challenges in Realizing a Practical MSR System | p. 215 |
| Implementation challenges | p. 218 |
| Service Description and Retrieval Strategy | p. 219 |
| Overview of the service architecture | p. 219 |
| Interaction of a client with various components | p. 221 |
| Design of the JVoD Software Architecture | p. 229 |
| Movie server: design and architecture | p. 229 |
| Agent: design and architecture | p. 234 |
| Client: design and architecture | p. 240 |
| Implementation Test-bed and Discussions | p. 242 |
| Concluding Remarks | p. 247 |
| Future Research Directions | p. 251 |
| Index | p. 265 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
