Efficient support for interactive scanning operations in MPEG-based video-on-demand systems

  • Authors:

  • Marwan Krunz;George Apostolopoulos

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ;Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

  • Venue:
  • Multimedia Systems
  • Year:
  • 2000

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

In this paper, we present an efficient approachfor supporting fast-scanning (FS) operations in MPEG-based video-on-demand (VOD) systems. This approach is based onstoring multiple, differently encoded versions of the samemovie at the server. A normal version is used for normalplayback, while several scan versions are used for FS. Eachscan version supports forward and backward FS at a givenspeedup. The server responds to an FS request by switching from the normal version to an appropriate scan version.Scanning versions are produced by encoding a sample of theraw frames using the same GOP pattern of the normal version. When a scanning version is decoded and played back atthe normal frame rate, it gives a perceptual motion speedup.By being able to control the traffic envelopes of the scanversions, our approach can be integrated into a previouslyproposed framework for distributing archived, MPEG-coded video streams. FS operations are supported using no or littleextra network bandwidth beyond what is already allocatedfor normal playback. Mechanisms for controlling the trafficenvelopes of the scan versions are presented. The actionstaken by the server and the client's decoder in response tovarious types of interactive requests are described in detail.The latency incurred in implementing various interactive requests is shown to be within an acceptable range. Stripingand disk-scheduling strategies for storing various versions atthe server are presented. Issues related to the implementationof our approach are discussed.