Solving a media mapping problem in a hierarchical server network with parallel simulated annealing

Advances in storage and high-speed broadband communication network technologies are making it feasible to design and implement distributed scalable video-on-demand server networks. In this paper a hierarchical structure for a server network is proposed to support a metropolitan TV-Anytime service. A key issue, how to map the media assets onto such a hierarchical server network, is addressed in this paper. The definition and heuristic methods for the solution of this new combinatorial optimization problem are presented. The mapping problem studied here addresses the management of media assets taking the storage capacity, communication bandwidth limitation and access pattern into account. The methods presented in this paper are based on parallel simulated annealing and are verified by the use of a set of benchmark instances. The results show that the methods provide a near to optimal performance in terms of the Quality of Service (QoS).