language: en

Video Server on an ATM Connected Cluster of Workstations

Olav Sandsta, Stein Langrgen, and Roger Midtstraum
Department of Computer and Information Science Norwegian University of Science and Technology
N-7034 Trondheim, Norway
folavsa, steinl, rogerg@idi.ntnu.no

Abstract Video servers are important for applications which make use of digital video. The video servers should provide better functionality than most of today's video servers offer, - e.g., support of flexible and instant user interactions, delivery of multiple video formats and support of virtual video documents. In this paper we discuss the requirements that video servers should fulfill and we describe the design and implementation of the Elvira video server. The Elvira video server is built on a cluster of standard UNIX workstations interconnected by an ATM switch. The capacity of the Elvira server is evaluated and we show the effects of different strategies for allocation of video data across nodes and disks.

1. Introduction