Framework for interactive video-on-demand service

We present a design of a video-on-demand (VOD) server, capable of supporting a large number of video requests with complete functionality of a remote control (as used in VCPs), for each request. In the proposed design, we have used an interleaved storage method with constrained allocation of video and audio blocks on the disk to provide continuous retrieval. Our storage scheme interleaves a movie with itself while satisfying the constraints on video and audio block allocation. This approach minimizes the starting delay and the buffer requirement at the user end while ensuring a jitter-free display for every request. A scheme supported by our disk storage method to provide the "pause" and "play" functions of a remote control has also been discussed.<
>