MEDIC: A Memory & Disk Cache for Multimedia Clients
Edward Chang and
Hector Garcia-Molina
Department of Computer Science
Stanford University
echang@CS.Stanford.EDU
Abstract
In this paper we propose an integrated memory and disk
cache for multimedia clients. The cache cushions the
multimedia decoder from input rate fluctuations and
mismatches, and because data can be cached to disk,
the acceptable fluctuations can be very large.
This gives the media server much greater flexibility
for load balancing, and lets the client operate efficiently
when the network rate is much larger or smaller than
the media display rate. We analyze the memory requirements
for this cache, and analytically derive safe values for
its control parameters. Using a realistic case study,
we examine the interaction between memory size, peak input
rate, and disk performance, and show that a relatively
modest amount of main memory can support a wide range
of scenarios.
Full Paper
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