EP0696872A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Return based scheduling to support video-on-demand applications
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1995-07-06
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2015-07-06
Abstract
Abstract A Video-On-Demand (VOD) scheduler maintains a queue of pending performance for at least one movie and determines a maximum wait tolerance time for a longest waiting one of the pending performance requests. When stream capacities become available, rather than scheduling the movie immediately the scheduler delays performance of the video until just prior to expiration of the maximum wait tolerance time of the longest waiting one of the pending performance requests. In the interim, additional streams can join queue. When the performance occurs all performance requests on the queue are served from the a single stream provided from the assigned stream capacity. <MATH>
Inventors
- 👤 Philip Shi-Lung Yu
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-06 16:04
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N7/00; H04N7/16; H04N7/173; H04N7/17309; H04N7/17327
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 8
Claim 1
Independent Claim
69 words
A method of scheduling video viewer requests for a video-on- demand service, wherein the requests have a maximum wait tolerance time, comprising the steps of: maintaining a queue of pending performance requests for a movie; determining when server stream capacities will become available; delaying scheduling of the movie until just prior to expiration of the maximum wait tolerance time of the longest waiting one of the pending performance requests.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of Claim 1 comprising the further steps of, during the delay, queuing additional requests for the movie and serving the additional requests from the common video stream.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
42 words
The method of Claim 1 comprising the further step of transmitting the common video stream from a video server to reception equipment at the viewer's locations, transmission of the common video stream causing the movie to be performed on the reception equipment.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
99 words
A method of scheduling video viewer requests for a video-on- demand service provided by a video server, wherein the requests have a maximum wait tolerance time, comprising the steps of: maintaining, at the video server, a queue of pending performance requests for a movie; determining a maximum wait tolerance time for the pending performance requests; determining when server stream capacities will become available; serving all of the pending performance requests in the queue from one of the stream capacities just prior to exceeding of the maximum wait tolerance time by a longest waiting one of the pending performance requests.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
82 words
A method of scheduling video viewer requests for a video-on- demand service provided by a video server, the requests have a maximum wait tolerance time, comprising the steps of: maintaining, at the video server, queues of pending performance requests for each of a number of movies; determining when server stream capacities will become available; serving the pending performance requests on a queue having a longest waiting one of the pending performance requests, just prior to expiration of the maximum wait tolerance time.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
72 words
The method of Claim 5 wherein the first group of queues is maintained for frequently requested movies and a second group of queues is maintained for less frequently served movies and wherein the second group of queues is not served unless all pending performance requests in each queue in the first group of queues can be served before expiration of the maximum wait tolerance time for the longest waiting request the queue.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
94 words
A scheduler for use in a video-on-demand system of a type wherein pending movie requests have a maximum wait tolerance time after which requestors will renege the requests, comprising: queue means for maintaining pending performance requests for a movie; and, means for determining a waiting time of a longest waiting one of the performance requests; and, means for serving all of the pending performance requests in the queue from one of the stream capacities, just prior to exceeding of the maximum wait tolerance time by the longest waiting one of the pending performance requests.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
76 words
The scheduler of Claim 7 wherein queue includes means for maintaining a first group of queues for frequently requested movies and a second group of queues for less frequently served movies and wherein the server means does not serve the second group of queues unless all pending performance requests in each queue in the first group of queues can be served before expiration of the maximum wait tolerance time for the longest waiting request the queue.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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