Modeling and Dimensioning Hierarchical Storage Systems for Low-Delay Video Services

  • Authors:

  • S.-H. Gary Chan;Fouad A. Tobagi

  • Affiliations:

  • -;-

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Transactions on Computers
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

In order to cost-effectively accommodate a large number of titles in a video system, a hierarchical storage system can be used. In this system, not-so-popular video files are stored in a tertiary level such as a disk/tape library. These files are transferred, or 驴staged,驴 to a secondary level composed of magnetic disks before being streamed to the users. This system overcomes the current limitations in using disk/tape libraries to stream videos and resolves the bandwidth difference between staging and streaming. In this paper, we present, via analysis, a model of the system and determine the minimum storage and bandwidth required, at each level, to meet a given user delay goal. We also analyze a number of system operations pertaining to whether or not a file is played while it is being staged (i.e., stage-streaming) and whether or not the displayed segments are deleted (i.e., trail-deletion). We show that stage-streaming and trail-deletion can achieve substantially lower bandwidth and storage requirements. In order to further increase the streaming and storage scalability, a distributed storage system can be used where multiple local servers are put close to user pools and get their files from one of the libraries through a network. We extend the models developed to such a system and specify the resource requirements to meet a given delay goal.