COMPARING DISK SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS FOR VBR DATA STREAMS

We compare a number of disk scheduling algorithms that can be used in a multimedia server for sustaining multiple variable-bit-rate (VBR) da ta streams. A data stream is sustained by repeatedly fetching a block of data from disk and storing it in a corresponding buffer. For each o f the disk scheduling algorithms we give necessary and sufficient cond itions for avoiding underflow and overflow of the buffers. In addition , the algorithms are compared with respect to buffer requirements as w ell as average response times. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.