This book will undoubtedly satisfy the needs of application developers, server designers, integrators, and service providers, as it provides end-to-end, top-down coverage: from application-specific issues to low-level components. Inside, the authors offer specific design, development, and implementation approaches that take into account the complexity of the environments in which multimedia servers operate. You'll learn which techniques are best suited for different kinds of applications and different kinds of networks. You'll master the challenges associated with resource scheduling, collaborative computing, session set-up, and distributed storage. Most importantly, you'll discover how to put all of these solutions to work as part of a coherent strategy aimed at exploiting economies of scale and meeting quality of service requirements.


* Presents optimized design algorithms developed by the authors and other leading researchers.* Deals comprehensively with the systems supporting the large-scale storage, retrieval, and distribution of audio and video data.* Balances the coverage of current technologies with forward-looking discussions to help you devise a sustainable, evolvable solution.* Covers key issues in video-on-demand and other multimedia systems: resource scheduling, local caching, interactivity, architectural strategies, and more.