A methodology for evaluating storage systems in distributed and hierarchical video servers
William H. Tetzlaff, Martin G. Kienzle, Dinkar Sitaram · 2002
Large scale multimedia systems combine technologies from audio and video systems, communications systems and computer systems. Multimedia systems store compressed video files digitally on a server that is shared by a large number of users. A video server is characterized by the number of simultaneous video streams it can support and by the size of the video library. Storage costs are a significant aspect of a video server because of the very large size of the objects. In setting up a video service, there is a choice between having one very large central server, multiple decentralized servers, or a hierarchical server structure. This paper discusses the scaling and cost issues in the server in order to provide information on how to balance server costs against communications costs.>