JP2875977B2 - Video service device with auxiliary storage - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a custom video (Vide
The present invention relates to a video service apparatus used in an On Demand system, and more particularly, to a video service apparatus that further includes an auxiliary storage in addition to a disk array and can efficiently service more subscribers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A custom video system is a system for storing movies and the like in a disk array and then supplying the movies and the like stored from the disk array to a desired subscriber at the request of the subscriber. Are distributed and stored on multiple disks in a disk array. Thus, a movie may be provided to multiple subscribers even if there are multiple subscriber requests for the same movie at different times.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a conventional general video service apparatus in a custom video system. The video service apparatus shown in FIG. 1 has a disk array 12 composed of a large number of disks, an array control unit 16 for controlling the output of the disk array 12, and a signal read from the disk array 12 for output in accordance with a transmission format. Buffer unit 14 is provided. The output terminal of the buffer unit 14 is connected to a high-speed switch 20 which can be switched at a high speed to send an output signal from the buffer unit 14 to a desired subscriber.

[0004] One movie is distributed by the number of disks constituting the disk array 12 and stored on each disk. For example, if a movie having a length of 100 minutes is stored in the disk array 12 having 100 disks, a movie having a length of 1 minute is stored on each disk. In order to send out a movie, each disk may be accessed sequentially. Distributing and storing a single movie is because a single movie can be distributed to more subscribers. One minute after sending the movie information to the first requester, if another subscriber requests the same movie, the later requestor will have the head of the movie in disk array 12 independent of the first requester. Since movie information output from the recorded disc can be provided, the movie can be watched from the beginning. Therefore, the conventional video service apparatus can output a movie from each disc when there is a request for the same movie at one minute intervals.
Can be sent to 0 people.

[0005] On the other hand, a large number of movies can be stored in one disk. Of course, in this case, each movie is distributed by the number of disks in the disk array 12. If data on 20 movies is stored in one disc and the data output speed of the disc is 30 Mbps, 20 movies with an output speed of 1.5 Mbps for each movie can be sent simultaneously.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional general video service apparatus, the time interval at which data recorded on each disk for the same movie can be sent out is limited by the number of disks in the disk array. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the number of subscribers who simultaneously send out one movie is limited by the time interval described above.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to store an auxiliary storage device without increasing the number of disks on a disk array. It is an object of the present invention to provide a video service apparatus which can increase the number of subscribers who can be supplied with one movie in the same time zone.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a video service apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a disk array comprising disks storing a large number of distributed movies; At a time interval, the request of the subscriber is checked, and if the movie requested by the subscriber is a new one different from the previous one, a control unit for controlling access to the disks in the disk array, and the data output from the disk array, The auxiliary storage means for storing, and when the request of the subscriber is determined by the control unit to be the same as the previous movie, the data already stored in the auxiliary storage means is output and for a certain period of time. Reclaimed
An auxiliary storage unit control unit that controls to delete a movie that does not exist, a buffer unit that synchronizes the output from the disk array and the auxiliary storage unit in accordance with the transmission format and outputs the output, and outputs the output from the buffer unit to a desired one. And a high-speed switch that can be switched at a high speed for sending to the subscriber.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video service device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The video service apparatus shown in FIG. 2 is a storage means, which is a disk array 1 having disks storing a large number of movies distributed by the number of disks.
2. An auxiliary storage unit 34 for storing data output from the disk array 12, and a buffer unit 3 for storing output data of the disk array 12 and the auxiliary storage unit 34 at an arbitrary time.
6. High-speed switch 40 for supplying the output of buffer unit 36 to the subscriber line, auxiliary storage control unit 32 for controlling the data output of auxiliary storage unit 34, and control unit for controlling disk array 12 and auxiliary storage control unit 32 38.

In the apparatus shown in FIG.
Comprises a number of disks in which a plurality of movies are respectively distributed and stored in all the disks contained in the disk array 12. In this case, the disk array 12
Can repeatedly output the same movie every "playback time interval" of the disk array 12, which is determined by the number of disks in the disk array and / or the number of movies recorded on the disk. Here, the reproduction time interval is a time interval at which the disk array 12 continuously reproduces data for one movie from each disk. Control unit 38
Checks the subscriber's request to be provided with the movie stored in the disk array 12 at every preset "subscriber request response time interval". Here, the subscriber request response time interval is determined independently of the above-described playback time interval, and is a time interval at which the control unit 38 checks a subscriber's request to provide movie information. Preferably, the subscriber request response time interval is set shorter than the playback time interval.

When there is a subscriber's request to provide movie information, the control unit 38 controls the disk array 12 to output data stored on the disk, and simultaneously outputs the data output from the disk array 12. The auxiliary storage control unit 32 is controlled so that is stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34. The signal output from the disk array 12 is input to the buffer unit 36 and stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34.

The control unit 38 checks whether there is a new subscriber request at each time interval corresponding to the subscriber request. If there is a new subscriber request, it is determined whether the first data of the movie corresponding to the new subscriber request is stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34. This determination is made based on a signal supplied from the auxiliary storage control unit 32. If it is determined that the first data of the movie corresponding to the request of the new subscriber is in the auxiliary storage unit 34, the control unit 38 controls the auxiliary storage control unit 32 to store the corresponding data in the auxiliary storage unit 34. Is output to the buffer unit 36. On the other hand, if the first data of the movie corresponding to the request of the new subscriber is not in the auxiliary storage unit 34, the control unit 38 controls the corresponding data to be output from the disk array 12. For such control, the control unit 38 stores the first data of each movie in the auxiliary storage unit 34 when the data is reproduced from the specific disk by the disk array 12, and outputs the data to another disk. , The auxiliary storage control unit 32 is controlled so that the subsequent contents of the movie are also stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34. The auxiliary storage unit 34 may be any unit that can be accessed at each of the above-described subscriber request response time intervals, and a DRAM or the like can be used.

However, when data for each movie is stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34 in this manner, the larger the number of movies output from the disk array 12 at the same time, the more memory capacity of the auxiliary storage unit 34 is required. In order to solve this problem, the control unit 38 is designed to store information on a movie which is highly requested by the subscriber, that is, a popular movie, and thereby control the auxiliary storage control unit 32. . When data for a large number of movies are simultaneously output from the disk array 12 by the control unit 38 designed in this way, the movie requested by the subscriber among the data is stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34 with priority. Is done.
In order to reduce the memory capacity of the auxiliary storage unit 34 more efficiently, the auxiliary storage control unit 32 determines whether the data stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34 has not been re-requested by the subscriber even after a predetermined period of time has elapsed. Data corresponding to the sub storage unit 3
Delete from 4. That is, the data stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34 according to the first request or a new request thereafter is deleted from the auxiliary storage unit 34 if there is no further re-request for a predetermined time after the data is stored. In this way, the auxiliary storage 34 stores the data of the movie requested by the subscriber, so that the popular movie requested by the subscriber can be accessed through the auxiliary storage 34 in the time interval corresponding to the subscriber request. And send it out.

The buffer unit 36 synchronizes and outputs data applied from the disk array 12 or the auxiliary storage unit 34 in accordance with the transmission format, and outputs each data output from the buffer unit 36 to the corresponding subscriber line by the high-speed switch 40. Will be sent out. As described above, the video service apparatus of FIG. 2 sends data for N movies output from the disk array 12 to the subscriber line when a subscriber request occurs only during the playback time interval. On the other hand, a check for each subscriber request response time interval causes a new subscriber request to be generated at each playback time interval, and data for a movie requested by the new subscriber, particularly data for the first part, is stored in the auxiliary storage part 34. In this case, the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 sends data output from the disk array 12 and the auxiliary storage unit 34 to the subscriber line. I can put it out.

A specific example will be described for easy understanding of the video service device presented in the present invention. Assuming that the disk array 12 is composed of 100 disks and stores 20 100-minute-length movies, that is, each disk stores each movie for about 1 minute. The “subscriber request response time interval” in the video service device is set to 3 seconds, and the auxiliary storage unit 34 is set.
The unit of fixed time for deleting data from is 1 minute. Therefore, the auxiliary storage 34 must be accessible at 3 second intervals.

If there is a request for the first to fifteenth movie from 0 seconds immediately after the service is started by the video service device, the control unit 38 controls the data to be sequentially output from the first disk of the disk array. Along with
By outputting a control signal to the auxiliary storage control unit 32, the auxiliary storage control unit 32 stores data output from the disk array 12 in the auxiliary storage unit 34.

The data output from the disk array 12 is synchronized through the buffer unit 36 and sent to the subscriber who requests each data by the high-speed switch 40. When a request for a movie from No. 1 to No. 5 comes in 3 seconds after the subscriber request response time, the control unit 38 outputs a control signal to the auxiliary storage control unit 32, and the control signal is already stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34. Output the data.

Six seconds later, when the requests for the first to fifth movies and the seventeenth movie come in, the first to fifth movies are output from the auxiliary storage unit 34 and the new request of the subscriber is requested. The 17th movie is output from the disk array and stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34. Since the unit of time for deleting data from the auxiliary storage unit 34 is one minute, the data is requested, and the data temporarily stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34 is stored in the auxiliary storage unit 34 after one minute. The data is deleted from the auxiliary storage unit 34 by the storage control unit 32.

[0019]

As described above, in the video service apparatus according to the present invention, a signal output from another disk array other than a disk array composed of disks storing a large number of movies distributed as many as the number of disks. The storage device further comprises an auxiliary storage device for storing data output from the disk array in the auxiliary storage device, and setting an independent "subscriber request response time interval" to the number of disks on the disk array, and subscribing. Check the subscriber's request during the user request response time interval, and if there is the same request as before, distribute the movie by accessing the auxiliary storage and outputting the data already stored in the auxiliary storage To increase the number of subscribers sent.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a conventional general video service device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a video service device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

 12 disk array 14, 36 buffer unit 16 array control unit 20, 40 high-speed switch 32 auxiliary storage control unit 34 auxiliary storage unit 38 control unit

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] Claims: 1. A video service apparatus for custom video sending a large number of movies to a large number of subscribers, comprising: a disk array comprising disks storing a large number of distributed movies; Checking the subscriber's request at a time interval, if the movie requested by the subscriber is a new one different from the previous one, a control unit for controlling access to the disks in the disk array; and Auxiliary storage means for storing; if the control unit determines that the request of the subscriber is the same as the previous movie, outputting the data already stored in the auxiliary storage means and for a certain period of time No reclaim
An auxiliary storage unit control unit for controlling the deletion of the movie; a buffer unit for synchronizing and outputting the output from the disk array and the auxiliary storage unit in accordance with the transmission format; A high-speed switch that can be switched at a high speed to send the video service to a user. 2. The video service device according to claim 1 , wherein said auxiliary storage means comprises a DRAM.