On the Disk Layout of Near Video On Demand System

Meng-Huang Lee+, Meng Chang Chen*

Jam-Ming Ho*, and Ming-Tat Ko*

*Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica

Taipei, Taiwan

Department of Management Information System, Shih Chien College

Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract
This paper discusses a novel data placement scheme which optimizes the storage utilization of a
NVOD system. The scheme is most distinctive in the following two aspects:

1.It considers the file blocks placement ofprogramsfeatured different number NVOD channels.
2. The file blocks grouping scheme optimizes the storage utilization of a NVOD system.

Keyword
near video on demand, NVOD, VOD, disk layout

Introduction
Unlike Video On Demand system that requires one channel per user, Near Video On Demand
(NVOD) system broadcasts the program periodically that the time between two successive play-
ings is much shorter (say 15 to 30 minutes) than the program playing time (usually between
90 minutes to 2 hours) and each playing uses a different channel. Consequently, NVOD system
only needs a less number of channels than VOD system as it allows users to share the channel
with the penalty of short start latency and no VCR-like functions. Generally, because NVOD
is communication-intensive, it makes best sense to employ this service in conjunction with video
compression technology.
For 10 two-hour programs,
1. if program begins every 15 minutes, then 80 channels are required.
2. if program begins every 30 minutes, then 40 channels are required.
The mathematics here is quite simple. A program that lasts two hours will utilize 8 channels
if it is to be shown every 15 minutes. This results from the fact that there are 8 15-minute
intervals in a 2-hour period. Similarly, if the same program is shown every 30 minutes, it will
require 4 channels as there are 4 30-minute intervals in a 2-hour period. Thus, for some popular

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 or so called hot programs, the program playing intervals will be shorter such that more channels
will be allocated to these programs and shorter start latency will be experienced to maintain the
enthusiasm of viewers.
In this paper, we present a quantitative study on the disk layout of NVOD system. We
present algorithms, while still maintains the quality of service, for (1) storing maximum number
of programs on disk, and (2) simultaneously serving of maximum number of NVOD channels. We
develop a model that relates disk device characteristics to maximizing the storage utilization of
multiple NVOD programs, and a mechanism to merge their storage patterns.
In the following parts of this paper, Related Works section discusses a constrained block al-
location scheme, which is related to the disk layout design of a NVOD system. In the General
Organization and Operations section, we present a disk layout model that leads to an optimal
solution of NVOD storage system. We give a example in section Design Example and Evaluation
to illustrate our design model. Finally, the section Conclusion and Future Work concludes the
discussions of this paper.

Related Works
In a NVOD system, the video programs start at every fixed time interval according to their pop-
ularity. If a NVOD program broadcasts on m channels, the system has to read m blocks at every
access period. Traditionally, every neighboring pair of those file blocks are located at the (Total
file blocks of this program)/m distance apart. Rangan and Vin[4] propose a disk layout scheme for
different playback rates of programs. Two questions are answered in the constrained allocation of
blocks of a media strand: (1) What should the size of the blocks(i.e. the granularity) be ? and (2)
What should the separation between successive blocks(i.e. the scattering parameter) of a strand
be? The guiding factor in determining the block size and separation is the requirement of contin-
uous retrieval at different strand rates. The relative values of block size (M) and the scattering
parameter (G) for each strand must satisfy the real-time retrieval and playback requirements.
The pair (M,G) defines the storage pattern of a strand, and the strand consists of repetitions of
its storage pattern. Notice that the larger M is , so is G. It is flexible to merge different strands,
but more buffer are required due to the larger service cycle time.
At the first glance, this scheme is suitable for a NVOD storage system design. But the scheme
assumes that the lengths of strands are unbounded. In their scheme, the retrieval data size of
each strand in a service cycle is proportional to their playback rates. If lengths of strands are
the same, data of the higher playback rate strand will have more data interleaved with the lower
playback rate strand in each service cycle. Sooner or later, while the higher playback rate strand
is placed in the disk, the lower playback rate strand still has data left to be placed. Without any
choice, the blocks at the end of the disk will contain data from the lower playback rate strand
only. This placement pattern will induce many seeks overhead as the disk needs to retrieve from
different blocks in order to supply data from both strands.
Since contemporary SCSI disks usually have read-ahead caching capability, it is essential to
access disk blocks sequentially to maximize I/O throughput. In this paper, a model is proposed
that relates SCSI read-ahead cache capability and novel data placement scheme to maximize the
storage utilization of multiple NVOD programs.

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 Region-Based Disk System

File blocks

,/ Region 0
jR

I, File blocks
'I, Region 1

I jR+1

Disks are evenly

partitioned into
R regions

\' Region R-1

File blocks

jR+(R-1)

Figure 1: The general scheme of the proposed disk layout. File blocks of a program with index j x R + lc are
placed in region k, j is the integer runs from 0.

General organization and operations

Figure 1 shows the proposed general rule to place the file blocks, or retrieval units in another
term, of a video program in the disk system. In Figure 1, the disk is evenly partitioned into several
regions. Each region is composed of a number of physically consecutive tracks. File blocks from
a video program are interleaved and placed in the disk system according the following rule:

file blocks with index (j x R + k) are placed in region k.

R is the number of regions into which the disk is partitioned, j is the integer runs from 0, and
k is the index of the regions and runs from 0 to R — 1. In the proposed disk layout design, the
basic storage unit is a disk track. That is, a file block(or retrieval unit) comprises one or more
disk tracks. The reason behind adopting this practice is to eliminate rotation latency during disk
access, which is one of the major overheads of disk accesses. If the disk features on-arrival read-
ahead and file blocks always start and end at disk track boundaries, then disk rotation latency
can be completely eliminated.
During the access operation, the system retrieves and buffers one file block for each channel
when the disk head scans across one partition region. Later in time, when the disk head moves
to next region, the system broadcasts the buffered data to the clients and buffers the incoming

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 data in another area of the data buffer. For the service quality reason, dual buffers are assigned
to each playing channel.
As described in the previous section, for supporting NVOD service, each program will pen-
odically start at a fixed time interval according to its popularity. Therefore, file blocks of each
playing channel have to be retrieved and playbacked in the service cycle. Besides the proposed file
blocks placement in a region-based disk system, we also propose file bloc/cs grouping scheme in a
disk region that groups together the file blocks must be retrieved and playbacked simultaneously
to optimize the disk head seek time overheads for supporting the NVOD service.
Here, let us use the symbols listed below in the subsequent discussions.
1. tr: denotes the disk notation time which is also the time to read a disk track.
2. S: denotes the logical block size of program i in the units of disk track size during a service
cycle time.
3. t: denotes the duration of playing back one track size of video program.
4. PS: denotes the program size in the units of disk track size, and we assume the sizes of each
program are the same.
5. DS: denotes the disk space in the units of disk track size.
6. Tseeic(d): denotes the seek time of disk head to scan d distance in number of cylinders in the
disk.
7. round_access_time: denotes the time of disk access operation from region 0 to region R-1 to
provide the NVOD service in the disk system as shown in Figure 1.
8. periods: denotes the NVOD broadcast time interval of program i in the units of the
roundaccesstime
9. R: denotes number of regions of into which the disk is partitioned.
10. RS: denotes the region size in the units of disk track size.
Assume there are n programs in the system. If the system commits one broadcast channel for
each program, they must meet the following two constraints:
1. space constraint: PS x n DS.
2. constraint in a region:

(a) real-time constraint:(>I1 S x tr + (n +1) x worst_seek_time_overhead) <min{S x t}

From[1], the worst_seek_time_over_head is equal to

Tseek
(RS1SZ
(b) space constraint:n x S RS

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 If each program features different number of NVOD channels, xReriod denotes the number ,
of channels required for program i. Therefore, the general formula to guarantee uninterrupted
NVOD service of the system is as follows,

( >II= 5 xReriod 8 x t+(>1 5 xRxperiod 1) x worst_seek_time_overhead) min{S x t}

From[1J, the worst_seek_time_over_head is equal to

r,-1 I R'Li=1 SxRxperiod X S.

'seek. ç-.n PS
Lii=1 SxRxperzod
As described above, file blocks with index j x R + k are placed in region k. Another question
here is how these blocks are placed in a region. In order to reduce the worst_seek_time_overhead,
this paper proposes a file blocks grouping scheme. Assume a video program periodically starts
at period time interval, the file blocks of this video program in the kth region of the disk are
grouped into period groups of file blocks. The mth group contains (k + j x (period — m) x R)th
blocks of this video program, j is the integer runs from 0 to i-fR — According to the proposed "
fi le blocks grouping scheme, the worst_seek_time_overhead is minimized.

Design example and evaluation

In the section, we present an example to illustrate the design algorithm. Table 1 shows the
storage specifications of our design example. The parameters listed in Table 1 are from the
HP97560 hard disk measured by Ruemmler and Wilkes[5J. The seek time of the disk is modeled
by

seekf 'd—
ime — 3.24+O.4OO/i, if d<383
8.00 + O.008d, if d 383,
where d is the distance of disk head movement in number of cylinders and the unit of time is
millisecond. Table 2 shows the NVOD system specifications of our design example. There are
two programs, A and B, in our storage system.
We assume the hard disk is partitioned into 8 regions, and the round_access_time from region
0 to region 7 to provide the NVOD service is 4 second. Notice that the selection of 4 seconds
is arbitrary and this number determines the size of buffer needed and the number of channel
supported. The periodA of program A is 12 and the periodB of program B is 19 according to our
definitions. Figure 2 shows the file blocks grouping of the 3th region of the program A. Program
B is also placed in the disk similarly. Table 3 shows that the file blocks in a region are placed
without grouping scheme, the system can not provide the sufficient NVOD channels for program
A and B, but with grouping scheme, the system can. The reason is obvious, as the disk seeking
time overhead is reduced with grouping scheme.

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 - - the99thblockofprogramA File blocks
-- the 195lihblc6rniA
th block of program A
grouping of
- - i387thbl&ojrniA program A
the 483 th block ofprogram A
the 579 th block of program A

the 1 1 th block ofprogram A File blocks

:: : grouping of
program A

- - thel9thblockofprogramA File blocks

-- - grouping of
Region-Based Disk System _______________ program A

File blocks the 27 th block of program A File blocks

D ( 0 8 16 24 32 40 -- --1°_- grouping of
egion : program A
of program A 'I
File blocks ,' the 35 thblock ofprogram A File blocks
. I the 131 th block of program A
Region 1 1,9, 17,25, 33,41 groupingof
program A
of program A ,"
File blocks
1
,' _ _ the43thblockofprogramA File blocks
Region 2 2, 10, 1 8, 26, 34, 42 ,' - - thel39thblockofprogramA grouping of
program A
of program A ,'
File blocks
.
Region 3 , , 19, 27, 35, 43 : ffillrmA
the 51 th block ofprogram A File blocks
grouping of
of program A . program A
'
File blocks
.i.,1i,) '_J,
egion '-/1 '1
D ')C _o,
'-)Q...j,' A--ii - - the59thblockofprogramA
the l55thblock ofprogramA
File blocks
groupmgof
of program A program A
File blocks __________________
Region 5 i '-, i 'o 'i n c tb!ok2fF2i!an2
th block of program A
File blocks
groupmgof
ofprogramA
. .
program A
File blocks
Region 6 6, 14, 22, 30, 38, 46 the75thblockofprogramA File blocks
of program A -- grouping of
File blocks . program A

Region7 7,15 23 31,39,47 - - the83thblockofprogram A File blocks

of program A - - thel79thbiockofprogramA grouping of
program A

- - the9ithblockofprogram A
the 187th block of program A
File blocks
grOuplngOf
program A

Figure 2: An example of the proposed file blocks grouping in a region-based disk system. The periodA is equal to
12

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 Rotation speed 4000rpm
No. of cylinders 1962
No. of sectors per track 72
No. of bytes per sector 512 bytes
Maximum sustained disk bandwidth 2.17 MBytes per second

Table 1: Hard disk specification

Program A Program B
Media type MPEG-i MPEG-i
Demand bandwidth per channel 1.5Mbps 1.5Mbps
Program duration 5 minutes 5 minutes
Periodically start interval 48 seconds 76 seconds

Table 2: The specifications of the NVOD programs

Random Grouping
placement placement
scheme scheme
Total retrieval and seek time
510.82 msec 475.02 msec
in a region
Meet t e real-time criteria of
No Yes
NVO[) service

Table 3: Comparisons of random placement scheme and grouping placement scheme. Notice that the time bound
for real-time criteria of disk access operations in one region is 500 msec

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 Conclusion and Future Work
This paper discusses a novel data placement scheme which optimizes the storage utilization of a
NVOD system. The scheme is most distinctive in the following two aspects:

1 .It considers the file blocks placement of programs featured different number of NVOD channels.

2.The file blocks grouping scheme optimizes the storage utilization of a NVOD system.

Currently, we only consider an optimal disk layout for NVOD service on one disk system.
The main challenge for a multiple disks system supporting NVOD service is to decide which
programs should be placed together on the same disks to meet the programs' popularity bandwidth
requirement and space size requirement with minimum storage cost. In[2] [3] , we propose an
optimization procedure. The proposed procedure determines, with respect to overall system cost,
which programs should be placed together on the same disks for supporting VOD service. Based
on the decision, the designer then can figure out the appropriate configuration of the multiple
disks system. The optimization target is to minimize the overall cost of the storage system. We
will apply the optimization procedure in NVOD system in the near future.

References
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policy. Information Processing Letters, 54, 1995.
[2] Meng-Huang Lee, Chun-Hung Wen, Chih-Yuan Cheng, Fu-Ching Wang, and Yen-Jen Oyang.
Storage Hierarchy Design in Multimedia On-Demand Servers. Proceedings of the 1996
IS&T/SPIE Symp. on Electronic Imaging: Science and Technology, Conference on Stroage
and Retrieval for Still Image and Video Database IV, San Jose, CA. Jan. 1996.
[3] Meng-Huang Lee, Meng Chang Chen, Jan-Ming Ho, Ming-Tat Ko, and Yen-Jen Oyang. De-
signing a ReadWrite Multimedia On Demand File Server. Proceedings of the 1996 IS&T/SPIE
Symp. on Electronic Imaging: Science and Technology, Conference on Very High Resolution
and Quality Imaging, San Jose, CA. Jan. 1996.
[4] P. Venkat Rangan and Harrick M. Vin. Efficient Storage Techniques for Digital Continuous
Multimedia. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1993.
[5] Chris Ruemmier and John Wikles. An Introduction to Disk Drive Modeling. IEEE Computer,
Vol. 27, No. 3, 1994.

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