ABSTRACT
Streaming applications often involve a large volume of media data in storage and transmission. Server clustering is one of the key technologies for the scalability and high availability of streaming services. Chapter 2 reviewed load balancing technologies for distributing service traffic dynamically among the servers of a cluster. Those technologies are complemented by static data placement that determines initial data layout across the servers. Since media contents have different popularity, they should be maintained with different degrees of redundancy. The contents should also be stored in different formats so as to meet the clients’ diverse needs and the resource constraints of their access devices and networks. This chapter formulates the problem of data placement and gives it a systematic treatment in video-on-demand (VoD) applications.
