Design and implementation of a low-cost/high-performance Video on Demand server

In this paper a prototype of a distributed Video on Demand server is presen ted. The technical aspects regarding the realization of this kind of servic e provider are dealt with, paying particular attention to exploiting the ar chitecture the system is based on. The proposed system easily allows, in an y broadband local network environment, the realization of a low-cost/high-p erformance, distributed video server, through the clustering of the local w orkstations. The system has been implemented and tested, and its performanc e and scalability results are presented in the final sections of this paper . (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.