Design and Performance Tradeoffs in Clustered Video Servers

In this paper, we investigate the suitability of clustered architectures for designing scalable multimedia servers. Specifically, we evaluate the effects of: (i) architectural design of the cluster, (ii) the size of the unit of data interleaving, and (iii) read-ahead buffering and scheduling on the real-time performance guarantees provided by the server. To analyze the effects of these parameters, we develop an analytical model of clustered multimedia servers, and then validate it through extensive simulations. The results of our analysis have formed the basis of our prototype implementation based on a cluster of switch-connected RS/6000 machines. We briefly describe the prototype and discuss some implementation details. 1. Introduction A wide range of applications in entertainment, business, and education require the development of multimedia servers that can support efficient means of storing and delivering digital audio and video objects to thousands of clients. The fundamental pr..