Interactive Video-On-Demand Systems

Book excerpt: Interactive Video-on-Demand Systems: Resource Management and Scheduling Strategies addresses issues in scheduling and management of resources in an interactive continuous-media (e.g., audio and video) server. The book 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. Unlike previous books, this volume presents an unprecedented 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). Interactive Video-on-Demand Systems: Resource Management and Scheduling Strategies collectively addresses multiple issues including QoS, throughput, responsiveness and efficiency. The solutions discussed in this volume are particularly valuable to practitioners who are building digital library, interactive multimedia and hypermedia servers. Interactive Video-on-Demand Systems: Resource Management and Scheduling Strategies is an excellent reference for 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.