Hierarchical video-on-demand servers for TV-anytime services

This paper presents algorithms and principles for the implementation of a novel broadband multimedia service called “TV-anytime”. The basic idea of this service is to store broadcast media assets on media server systems and allow people to access this information at any time. Using a given user profile the recording of media assets can be personalized allowing the implementation of “personal TV” in this way. Within this paper we present the basic mechanisms for the implementation of TV-anytime services on an hierarchical network of media servers. The basic question of how to handle and manage the broadband media assets on such a hierarchical network of media servers is addressed in this paper. We present methods that take up concepts from a graph for the mangement of media assets and verify these methods using sample applications. The results show that the methods provide near to optimal performance in terms of the “quality of service” for the TV-daytime scenario