Designing and implementing high-performance media-on-demand servers

Of the many potential interactive multimedia applications, media-on-demand (MOD) has generated the most excitement. MOD lets users receive services from remote resources interactively, at their own pace. The quintessential example of these services is video-on-demand. Consumers are able to order and view movies of their choice, at their convenience, from their home, using a remote control. This scenario, though achievable, remains just a concept. Although recent advances in networking, processing, and storage have brought this concept closer to reality, large-scale deployment of MOD services remains a complex problem. We believe that using high-performance computers as MOD servers offers the best solution. However, implementing these servers poses its own challenges. The article examines such a server's requirements and implementation problems.<
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