Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Figures and Tables (p. xi)
• Foreword (p. xv)
• Preface and Acknowledgments (p. xvii)
• Part 1 Multimedia Server Applications and Environments (p. 1)
• 1 Introduction (p. 3)
• 1.1 Multimedia Applications (p. 5)
• 1.2 Multimedia Server Design Issues (p. 10)
• 1.3 Overview of Encoding and Data Compression Technologies (p. 13)
• 1.4 Summary (p. 16)
• 2 Multimedia Server Environment (p. 17)
• 2.1 Requirements of Multimedia Applications on the Underlying Environment (p. 18)
• 2.2 Client Environment (p. 21)
• 2.3 Network Environment (p. 24)
• 2.4 OSI Model Overview (p. 30)
• 2.5 ATM Model (p. 43)
• 2.6 Summary (p. 45)
• 3 Multimedia Server Architecture and Components (p. 47)
• 3.1 Introduction (p. 47)
• 3.2 Multimedia Server Hardware (p. 50)
• 3.3 Multimedia Server Software (p. 63)
• 3.4 Multimedia Server Topology (p. 69)
• 3.5 Summary (p. 73)
• Part 1 References (p. 75)
• Part 2 Scheduling (p. 81)
• 4 Client Session Scheduling (p. 83)
• 4.1 Introduction (p. 83)
• 4.2 QoS Specification (p. 87)
• 4.3 Capacity Estimation (p. 89)
• 4.4 Logical Channel Setup (p. 93)
• 4.5 Summary (p. 95)
• 5 Client Request Scheduling (p. 97)
• 5.1 Introduction (p. 97)
• 5.2 Client Scheduling Issues (p. 98)
• 5.3 VCR Control Operations (p. 103)
• 5.4 Batching Policies (p. 108)
• 5.5 Time-Varying Workloads (p. 116)
• 5.6 Summary (p. 120)
• 6 Scheduling in System Components (p. 121)
• 6.1 Introduction (p. 121)
• 6.2 Scheduling of Periodic Tasks (p. 122)
• 6.3 Hybrid Rate Monotonic Policy (p. 124)
• 6.4 Hierarchical Scheduling (p. 126)
• 6.5 Summary (p. 130)
• Part 2 References (p. 131)
• Part 3 The Storage Subsystem (p. 135)
• 7 Storage Management Overview (p. 137)
• 7.1 Introduction (p. 137)
• 7.2 Storage System Architecture (p. 138)
• 7.3 Placement of Multimedia Data in Storage Devices (p. 141)
• 7.4 Multimedia Document Retrieval (p. 143)
• 7.5 Issues in I/O Scheduling (p. 146)
• 7.6 Summary (p. 149)
• 8 Single-Disk Issues (p. 151)
• 8.1 Introduction (p. 151)
• 8.2 Storage Organization (p. 151)
• 8.3 Retrieval (p. 160)
• 8.4 Multizone Disks (p. 168)
• 8.5 Summary (p. 169)
• 9 Multiple-Disk Organization (p. 171)
• 9.1 Introduction (p. 171)
• 9.2 Striping (p. 171)
• 9.3 Recovery from Failure (p. 177)
• 9.4 File Placement (p. 185)
• 9.5 Summary (p. 193)
• 10 Storage Hierarchy (p. 195)
• 10.1 Introduction (p. 195)
• 10.2 Overview of Tertiary Storage Devices (p. 196)
• 10.3 Staging Issues (p. 196)
• 10.4 Storage Organization (p. 201)
• 10.5 Cost Analysis and Placement Implications (p. 204)
• 10.6 Summary (p. 205)
• Part 3 References (p. 207)
• Part 4 Cache Management (p. 211)
• 11 Caching Overview (p. 213)
• 11.1 Introduction (p. 213)
• 11.2 Data Prefetching and Its Relationships to Buffering and Caching (p. 216)
• 11.3 Caching Objectives (p. 220)
• 11.4 Characterization of Cache Management Policies (p. 221)
• 11.5 Summary (p. 224)
• 12 Memory Cache (p. 225)
• 12.1 Introduction (p. 225)
• 12.2 Overview of Memory Caching Policies (p. 226)
• 12.3 The Generalized Interval Caching Policy (p. 233)
• 12.4 Performance Evaluation of the GIC Policy (p. 236)
• 12.5 Affinity Routing for Multimedia Applications (p. 241)
• 12.6 Caching for Load Balancing Across Servers (p. 248)
• 12.7 Summary (p. 250)
• 13 Disk Cache (p. 253)
• 13.1 Introduction (p. 253)
• 13.2 Caching Among Disks in a Single System (p. 254)
• 13.3 Issues in Distributed Disk Caching (p. 257)
• 13.4 Disk Caching Policies (p. 265)
• 13.5 Summary (p. 270)
• Part 4 References (p. 273)
• About the Authors (p. 279)
• Index (p. 281)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Dr. Dinkar Sitaram is Director of the Technology Group at Novell, Inc., Bangalore. Previously, he was a Research Staff Member at IBM Research.

Dr. Asit Dan has been with IBM Research since 1990, and is currently leading a group on the development of infrastructure for supporting e-commerce applications.