JPH0888631A - Video server system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To improve the reliability by switching a high speed switch provided the HDD side of a signal processing section and in a terminal equipment side to use a standby signal processing section thereby attaining the delivery of video data or the like even when part of the signal processing section, the high speed switch or part of a host I/F section is faulty. CONSTITUTION: For example, when a signal processing section (1)10 is faulty, a high speed switch 8 is controlled not to send video data from an HDD group (1)2 to the signal processing section (1)10 but to send the data to a standby signal processing section 13. Video data from the HDD group (2)3 and (3)4 are sent to the signal processing sections (2)11, (3)12 the same as the processing up to now. Data from the signal processing sections (2)11, (3)12 and the standby signal processing section 13 are sent to the high speed switch 8. The high speed switch 8 delivers video data from the standby signal processing section 13 for each time slot to terminal equipment groups (1)15 to (3)17 on behalf of the faulty signal processing section (1)10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video server system for reading video data from an HDD and delivering it to terminals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Large-capacity data in recent computers
Compressed video data stored in HDD based on data storage technology, high-speed network technology, and video data compression technology.
A video server system that reads out data according to the request of the terminal and distributes it to the terminal is drawing attention.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the structure. 1 is a highly reliable RAID device composed of a plurality of HDDs for storing compressed video data, and 2 to 4 are RAID devices.
HDD groups 1 to 3 and 5 to 7, which are a set of HDDs in the device, are hosts I of the RAID device and external devices.
The I / F unit 1 to the host I / F units 3 and 9 are WS or P for controlling the data flow of the entire video server system.
C, 10 to 12 are in the WS or PC, and the signal processing unit 1 performs signal processing for protocol conversion of compressed video data from HDD standard SCSI data to network data. Parts 3 and 14 are high-speed switches such as network hubs for distributing video data among terminals,
Reference numerals 15 to 17 denote signal transmission paths for connecting the respective devices to the terminal groups 1 to 3 and 18 for decompressing the compressed video data and displaying it on the screen.

FIG. 5 shows video data distributed to a group of terminals. 21 to 23 represent video data distributed from the terminal group 1 to the terminal group 3.

Normally, the compressed video data is divided at every fine time and divided into 2 HDD groups 1 to 4 HDD groups 3
Is recorded uniformly according to a certain recording method. The video server system distributes video data from the HDD group to the terminal group at fixed time intervals, which is called 24 time slot periods.

In the first time slot period, the video data distributed to the terminal group 1 of 21 is the video data of the HDD group 1, and the video data distributed to the terminal group 2 of 22 is the video data of the HDD group 2. Terminal group 3 of 23
The video data distributed to is the video data of the HDD group 3.

In the next time slot cycle, the destination of the video data is designated by the WS or PC so that the video data of the HDD group recording the required video data is delivered to the terminal. Thus, 14 high speed switches are switched to change the distribution of video data. 21
The video data distributed to the terminal group 1 of 2 becomes the video data of the HDD group 2, the video data distributed to the terminal group 2 of 22 becomes the video data of the HDD group 3, and distributed to the terminal group 3 of 23. The generated video data becomes the video data of the HDD group 1.

In the next time slot cycle, the high speed switch of 14 is switched again, and the video data distributed to the terminal group 1 of 21 becomes the video data of the HDD group 3 and the video distributed to the terminal group 2 of 22. The data becomes the video data of the HDD group 1, and the video data distributed to the terminal group 3 at 23 becomes the video data of the HDD group 2.

Similarly, 14 times per time slot period
By switching the high-speed switch, the video data read from each HDD group is sequentially distributed to each terminal group and distributed. In this way, the video server system is configured by distributing the video data from the HDD to the terminals.

However, in the above description, for simplification of description, it is assumed that the video data of the HDD groups 1 to 4 of 2 HDDs are sequentially sorted into the terminal group 1 of 15 to the terminal group 3 of 17. Normally, the video data of the HDD group is sorted for each terminal according to the video data request of each terminal.

[0011]

In the video server system configured as described above, if some of the signal processing units fail, the video data read from the HDD cannot be processed, so that the terminal is not able to process the video data. Video data cannot be delivered. Further, even if a part of the input section on the signal processing section side of the high-speed switch fails, the video data cannot be switched in the time slot cycle, so that the video data cannot be delivered.

Further, a part of the host I / O in the RAID device is
Even if the F section fails, the video data read from the HDD group cannot be sent to the signal processing section, so that the distribution cannot be normally performed.

To solve these problems, if the signal processing unit, high-speed switch, and host I / F unit are duplicated, the reliability against failure will be high, but since each device requires two systems, the cost is high. Will also be high.

The present invention solves the above problems. In claim 1, even if some of the signal processing units and some of the high-speed switches fail, the video data can be distributed and the reliability is high.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a video server system, which is cheaper than redundant one.

According to the second aspect, in addition to the failure of part of the signal processing section and the high-speed switch of the first aspect, even if a part of the host I / F section fails, the video data can be distributed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a video server system which is highly reliable and is cheaper than duplexing.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a more inexpensive video server system.

[0017]

In order to achieve the above object, a video server system according to a first aspect of the present invention is provided with a high-speed switch for switching a signal transmission path on both the HDD side and the terminal side of a signal processing unit. Moreover, it is characterized in that a spare signal processing unit is provided.

A video server system according to a second aspect is characterized in that a high speed switch on the HDD side of the video server system according to the first aspect is built in a RAID device.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a video server system according to the second aspect, wherein the high speed switch inside the RAID device is FC-A.
L (Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop) is used.

[0020]

According to the present invention, even if some of the signal processing units and some of the high-speed switches fail in the first aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, some of the host I / Fs in addition to the first aspect Even if a part breaks down, video data can be delivered with high reliability,
A video server system, which is cheaper than duplexing, is provided. A third aspect of the present invention provides a video server system that is less expensive than the case where the high-speed switch is composed of independent high-speed switches such as Fabric.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of claim 1 of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. The read video data from 2 HDD groups 1 to 4 HDD group 3 in the 1 RAID device passes from the host I / F section 1 to the host I / F section 3 of 5 to 7, and Enter the high speed switch. Normally, the high-speed switch 8 is not switched, and the video data of the HDD group 2 of 2 is stored in the signal processing unit 1 of 10 HDD group 2 of 3
Video data of 11 are connected to the signal processing unit 2 of 11, and the video data of the HDD group 3 of 4 are connected to the signal processing unit 3 of 12 as they are.

No video data is input to the spare signal processor 13 in FIG. Video data from 10 signal processing units 1 to 12 signal processing units 3 are input to 14 high-speed switches. In this high-speed switch 14, the video data is switched every time slot period as in the conventional example, and 15
To the terminal group 3 of the terminal groups 1 to 17.

In the video server system of this configuration,
As an example, consider a case in which ten signal processing units 1 have failed.

Since the signal processing unit 1 of 10 is out of order and cannot be used, the spare signal processing unit 13 is used instead. The high-speed switch 8 is controlled to send the video data of the HDD group 1 of 2 to the spare signal processing unit 13 instead of sending it to the failed signal processing unit 1. The video data of the HDD group 2 of 3 and the HDD group 3 of 4 are sent to the signal processing section 2 of 11 and the signal processing section 3 of 12 as before. Video data from the signal processing units 2 and 11 and the spare signal processing units of the signal processing units 3 and 13 are sent to the high speed switch 14. The high-speed switch 8 delivers the video data from the spare signal processing unit 13 to the terminal group 1 to the terminal group 3 of 15 to 17 for each time slot period, instead of the failed signal processing unit 1. In the same way as before, the high-speed switch 8 distributes the video data of the signal processing units 2 and 3 of 11 and 12 to the terminal group 3 of 15 to 17 for each time slot period.

In this way, even if any one of the signal processing units fails, the video data can be distributed by switching the high speed switch and using the spare signal processing unit.

The same applies when the signal processing unit side inside the high-speed switch fails. By using the signal transmission line of the spare signal processing unit instead of the signal processing unit side inside the failed high-speed switch, it becomes possible to distribute the video data.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The difference from the embodiment of claim 1 is that the eight high-speed switches on the HDD side are RAID devices 1.
It was built into. Thereby, the RAID device 1
5 to 7, even if the host I / F unit 1 to the host I / F unit 3 fail, by using the spare host I / F unit 19 connected to the spare signal processing unit 13, Video data can be distributed.

The above video server system has one high-speed switch and one spare signal processing unit, as compared with the conventional example.
Although there is an extra spare host I / F unit, it is cheaper than duplicating the high-speed switch, the signal processing unit, and the host I / F unit.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The FC-AL is a high-speed standard I / F that has been drawing attention recently, and has begun to be adopted for HDD I / F and the like. 20 FC-AL is HDD2,3,
4 and the host I / F units 5, 6, 7, and 19 are connected in a loop, data transfer is possible.
It can perform the same function as a high-speed switch and can be constructed at a lower price than a high-speed switch.

As described above, according to the video server system of the first embodiment of the present invention, even if a part of the signal processing unit or a part of the high speed switch fails, the HDD of the signal processing unit is
The video data can be distributed by switching the high-speed switches provided on the terminal side and the terminal side and using the spare signal processing section.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the video data is distributed even if a part of the signal processing section and the high-speed switch of the first aspect fails, and a part of the host I / F section also fails. be able to.

Further, according to claim 3, it is possible to configure a video server system using FC-AL, which is less expensive than using a high speed switch.

[0033]

As is apparent from the above description,
According to claim 1 of the present invention, a high-speed switch for switching a signal transmission path for delivering video data to a terminal is provided on both the HDD side and the terminal side of the signal processing section, and a spare signal processing section is provided. As a result, even if some of the signal processing units or some of the high-speed switches fail, it is possible to provide a video server system that can deliver video data, has high reliability, and is cheaper than duplexing. .

Further, in addition to Claim 1, in Claim 2, even if a part of the host I / F unit fails, the video data can be distributed, the reliability is high, and the video is cheaper than the duplex video. A server system can be provided.

Further, in claim 3, the RAI of claim 2 is
The FC-AL is used as the high-speed switch inside the D device, and it is possible to configure a video server system that is cheaper than using an independent high-speed switch such as Fablic.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a video server system according to an embodiment of claim 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a video server system of an embodiment in claim 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a video server system according to an embodiment of claim 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional video server system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is video data distributed by a terminal group.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 RAID device 2-4 HDD group 5-7 Host I / F section 8, 14 High-speed switch 9 WS, PC 10-13 Signal processing section 15-17 Terminal group

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A HDD group storing video data, a signal processing section for performing signal processing, a terminal group, and a connection between the HDD group and the signal processing section and between the signal processing section and the terminal group. A high-speed switch for switching the signal transmission path is provided on both the HDD side and the terminal side of the signal processing section, and a spare signal processing section is provided, so that the high-speed switch can be operated in case of failure. A video server system, wherein the spare signal processing unit is activated by switching. 2. A RAID device that controls an HDD group,
The video server system according to claim 1, wherein the high-speed switch on the HDD group side is connected between the HDD group and the host I / F unit. 3. The FC-AL is used as the high-speed switch inside the RAID device.
Video server system.