Video data retrieval in parallel disk arrays

Due to the emergence of various multimedia applications, a significant amount of research effort has recently been elaborated upon how to deal with video data retrieval in parallel disk arrays. We examine in this paper various issues related to video data retrieval in parallel disk arrays and survey several recent studies. The issue of load balancing is first discussed. Various approaches to replicate hot videos are considered. Then, we study the issue of disk scheduling and examine a general scheduling method to minimize the buffer requirement of the video server. In addition, the issue of batching viewers is investigated which is an effective way to increase the server's throughput. Finally the means to support VCR-like functions for a disk-Array-based video server is considered. We expect that the problem of how to cost-effectively handle video data in parallel disk arrays will be of growing importance.