JPH10275419A - Multimedia server, multimedia on-demand system and multimedia information distribution method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain the multimedia server with the degree of freedom in a segment striping mode by synchronously repeating such processing that a segment stored in a storage means is read out and given to a communication control means in accordance with a scheduling result between such individual storage means and obtaining and transmitting such segments in turn from individual control means to the side of terminal means. SOLUTION: This video server 400 possesses three storage devices 101, 102 and 103 for striping and storing the segment as a division of a bit stream and communication control devices 105, 106 and 107 for giving and receiving information with a terminal device 410 and control devices 111, 112 and 113. Segment read-out scheduling is carried out by a control means 150 at the time of completing each period of a reproducing time of one segment in the terminal device as one period, and in the next period, the processing of reading out the segment stored in the storage device and giving this segment to the communication control device is performed between the individual storage devices in synchronization with each other according to this scheduling result.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for distributing a bit stream that has been stored by striping, and more particularly to a technique suitable for application to a multimedia system such as video-on-demand.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional video-on-demand system. In this system, a video server 300 and a terminal device 310 are communicably connected via a communication medium 305, and the video server 300 distributes image information in response to a reproduction request from the terminal device 310. For convenience of explanation, only one terminal device 310 is shown.

The video server 300 includes three storage devices 201, 202, 203 for striping and storing segments obtained by dividing a bit stream, a communication device 206 having a communication function with a terminal device 310, It has a control device 205 for controlling the operation of each device in order to perform a distribution process, and each device is connected to an internal bus 204 for communicating necessary information between the devices.

[0004] Each of the storage devices 201, 202, 203
Is composed of, for example, a storage device such as a magnetic disk device. Now, the bit stream is divided into segments of a fixed length, and is striped and stored in three storage devices in a so-called round-robin arrangement. Shall be.

[0005] Next, with reference to the explanatory diagram of the bit stream reading schedule of FIG.
An outline of the operation will be described. In FIG. 3, for simplicity of description, the segments of each bit stream have the same size, and the reading cycle (cycle) of the stored contents of the storage devices 201 to 203 has three phases.
The number of segments that can be read in a cycle is "3"
, And one reading cycle is equal to the playback time of one segment on the terminal device 310.

Then, segments a1, a2, a3, a
The storage mode of each segment of the bit stream A composed of the four segments... Is as follows: “the first segment a1 is stored on the disk 1 (corresponding to the storage device 201), and the second segment a2 is stored on the disk 2 (corresponding to the storage device 202). ), And the third segment a3 is stored in the disk 3 (storage device 2).
03), and the fourth segment a4 is stored on the disc 1,..., And so on, and the segments are stored in a so-called round-robin manner.

When the communication device 206 receives a request to reproduce the bit stream A from the terminal device 310 via the communication medium 305, the control device 205 performs a desired segment ( a1, a2, a3, a4,...) are stored on the disks 1 to 3 (corresponding to the storage devices 201 to 203).
A segment read request is sequentially issued at a predetermined timing via the internal bus 204 to sequentially read the segments, and the sequentially read segments are sent to the communication device 206 via the internal bus, and the communication device 206 transmits the received segments to the terminal device. Send to 310.

More specifically, the controller 205 issues a read request for the segment a1 to the disk 1 at the start of the phase 1 of the cycle 1, and the disk 1
Is read and sent to the communication device 206.
Issues a read request for segment a2 to disk 2 at the start of phase 1 of the above, reads segment a2 from disk 2 and sends it to communication device 206, and then issues a read request for segment a3 at the start of phase 3 of cycle 3. The image data of the bit stream A is sent to the terminal device 310 by repeating the operation of issuing the data to the disk 3, reading the segment a3 from the disk 3 and sending it to the communication device 206.

Since segments are accumulated in a round-robin manner, the controller issues a segment read request to the disk at the start of the same phase in each cycle, and sequentially forms the same bit stream. The operation of sequentially reading the segments was performed.

As described above, conventionally, in one bit stream reading operation, segment read requests are sequentially issued to the disk at the same phase in each cycle so that the bit stream is not interrupted. As a result, the difference in the reading time of each segment was equal to the reading cycle (cycle).

[0011]

As described above, in the conventional video server, in order to sequentially read the segments constituting the same bit stream, at the start of the same phase in each cycle, a segment read request is sent to the storage device. In such a case, segments are stored in a plurality of storage devices in a round-robin manner.

[0012] Therefore, if segment accumulation is performed by means other than the round robin type, the reproduced bit stream will be interrupted. However, such round-robin type segment storage restricts the degree of freedom of the segment storage, increases the man-hours when constructing a video server, and restricts the degree of freedom in system design. It has been desired to develop a means for stripping a segment to each storage device.

When a special reproduction request such as pause, slow, jump, or skip reproduction is generated, even if the segments constitute the same bit stream, the segments are read out sequentially at the start of the same phase in each cycle. Cannot be performed, and there is also a problem that the reproduced bit stream is interrupted due to a delay in reading the segment.

[0014] The above-mentioned problem exists not only in a video server but also in a server that provides various other multimedia information such as audio information. Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem, and its purpose is to perform striping of a regular segment such as a round robin type without performing striping.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a multimedia information distribution means that does not cause interruption of a reproduction bit stream.

[0015]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multimedia server which distributes multimedia information in response to a multimedia information reproduction request from a terminal. A plurality of storage means for striping and storing the segments obtained by dividing the bit stream; a control means for reading out the stored contents of each storage means; and receiving the reproduction request from the terminal, And a communication control unit for sequentially acquiring a segment corresponding to the reproduction request from the control unit and transmitting the segment to the terminal side, wherein the control unit reproduces one segment at the terminal. A schedule for reading a segment in response to a segment read request issued during a certain cycle with time as one cycle The go at the end of the period, in the next period, in accordance with the scheduling result, go reads the segment stored in said storage means,
There is provided a multimedia server which repeatedly performs processing given to the communication control means in synchronization with each storage means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the communication control means has a capacity capable of storing n (n is an integer and n ≧ 3) segments per terminal. Storage means for sequentially temporarily storing segments to be transmitted to the terminal side, wherein the communication control means temporarily stores one transmission segment for the terminal in the storage means after a session with the terminal is started. , The transmission of a segment is started, and when the number of segments temporarily stored in the storage unit is two or less, the acquired segment is newly stored temporarily in the storage unit. A multimedia server configured to issue a simple segment read request is provided.

After the session with the terminal is started, the communication control means temporarily stores one segment to be transmitted to the terminal, and then starts transmitting the segment to the terminal.
Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system aspect of the present invention, that is, a terminal device for making a request for reproducing multimedia information and a multimedia server for distributing multimedia information in response to the request for reproduction. In the system, the terminal device includes at least means for performing a process of transmitting the reproduction request to a multimedia server and a process of reproducing distributed multimedia information, wherein the multimedia server has a segment obtained by dividing a stream. A plurality of storage means for striping and storing
Control means for reading the stored content of each storage means, and upon receiving the playback request from the terminal device, issue a segment read request for the playback request and issue a segment corresponding to the playback request from the control means. Communication control means for sequentially acquiring and transmitting to the terminal device,
The control means performs a segment readout scheduling in response to a segment readout request issued during a certain cycle at the end of the cycle, with the playback time of one segment in the terminal device as one cycle, and in the next cycle, A multimedia on-demand system is provided, in which a segment stored in the storage means is read out according to a scheduling result, and processing to be provided to the communication control means is repeatedly performed in synchronization with each storage means. You.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method according to another aspect of the present invention, that is, a method of distributing multimedia information in response to a request for reproducing multimedia information from a terminal. Then, the segments obtained by dividing the bit stream are striped and stored in a plurality of storage units, and when the reproduction request is given from the terminal side, a segment read request for this reproduction request is issued, When a segment corresponding to a playback request is sequentially acquired and transmitted to the terminal, 1
With the segment playback time as one cycle, scheduling of segment reading in response to a segment read request issued during a certain cycle is performed at the end of the cycle, and is stored in the storage means in the next cycle according to the scheduling result. A method of distributing multimedia information is provided, in which a segment read out and distributed to the terminal is repeatedly performed in synchronization with each storage means.

The above-mentioned multimedia information includes, for example, information such as a still image, a moving image, and audio. One cycle (cycle) is the playback time of one segment in the terminal, the segment read from the storage means is scheduled for each cycle, and the communication control means Send the segment to the device. However, there may be a predetermined amount of deviation between the timing of the scheduling and the terminal transmission of the segment.

A program describing the multimedia information distribution method and the operation procedure of the control means is stored in a storage medium, and the computer reads the program to distribute and control the multimedia information. A storage medium enabling the operation of the means to be performed is also provided. As a storage medium, an optical storage medium such as a CDROM and a DVD, a magnetic storage medium such as a flexible disk, an RO
M, and a semiconductor storage medium such as an IC card.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The multimedia information includes, for example, information such as a still image, a moving image, and audio. In the embodiment of the present invention, a video server that distributes image information will be described as an example.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video-on-demand system according to an embodiment of the present invention. This system includes a video server 400 and a terminal device 410,
The terminal device 4 is communicably connected via the communication medium 405 and
The video server 400 distributes image information in response to a reproduction request from the server 10. Although only one terminal device 410 is shown for convenience of explanation, a plurality of terminal devices are usually connected.

The terminal device 410 includes at least a processing unit 415 for performing a process of transmitting a reproduction request to the video server 400 and a process of reproducing distributed image information.
An input device such as a keyboard for instructing a reproduction request and a display device such as a CRT for displaying a reproduced image are provided.
The processing unit 415 can be realized by, for example, a storage medium such as a ROM having a built-in operation program, a CPU that executes predetermined processing according to the operation program, and the like.
The terminal device 410 can be realized by, for example, one computer system.

On the other hand, the video server 400 has three storage devices (1, 2, 3) 101, 102, 1 for striping and storing segments obtained by dividing a bit stream.
03, communication control devices (1, 2, 3) 105, 106 for exchanging information with the terminal device 410 and the control device 150.
107, and a control device 150 for controlling the operation of each device for performing image information distribution processing. Each device has an internal bus 15 for communicating necessary information between the devices.
5 is connected. Since each device can be realized by, for example, a magnetic disk device, a storage medium such as a ROM having a built-in operation program, a CPU that executes predetermined processing in accordance with the operation program, the video server 400
Can be realized by, for example, one computer system.

Although the configuration example shown in FIG. 1 shows a case in which three storage devices and three communication control devices are provided, it goes without saying that the number of storage devices and communication control devices is not particularly limited.

Further, each of the communication control devices 105, 106,
107 is, for example, 3 segments per terminal (generally,
Buffer memories (storage means) 108, 109, and 110 for temporarily storing n segments (n is an integer of 3 or more) are provided, and the read segments are sequentially and temporarily stored in the buffer memory. .

A buffer memory for three segments (illustrated by reference numerals a, b, and c for the buffer memory 108 as an example) includes a buffer (a) for one segment for sending a temporarily stored segment to the terminal, It is used as buffers (b, c) for two segments for temporarily storing the segments read from the storage device.

Here, an outline of the operation of the control device 150 and the communication control devices 105 to 107, which are main parts of the present embodiment, will be described. The controller 150 does not read segments from the storage device in the same phase of each cycle as in the related art. The control device 150 schedules the segment readout for the segment readout request issued during a certain period at the end of the period, with the reproduction time of one segment in the terminal device as one period, and performs the scheduling in the next period. According to the result, the segment stored in the storage device is read out, and the process to be given to the communication control device is performed in synchronization between the storage devices.

It should be noted that scheduling refers to determining the order of reading segments, and rules for determining the order of reading include, for example, reading in accordance with a predetermined bit stream priority.

Further, each communication control device temporarily stores at least one segment in the buffer memory, and then, in the next cycle of the cycle in which the temporary storage was performed, the terminal device 41.
0, and each communication control device determines that the number of segments temporarily stored in the buffer memory is 2
If the number of the segments is less than or equal to one, the segment received from the control device 150 is received, and at the timing when the buffer memory temporarily stores the segment, a read request for the next segment constituting the same stream is issued to the control device 150 I do.

Further, when the buffer memory temporarily stores three segments, each communication control device issues a segment request until the segment transmission to the terminal device 410 is completed and the segment releases the buffer memory. It is configured not to issue.

Next, the operation of the video server 400 will be described with reference to the explanatory diagram of the bit stream reading schedule of FIG. 4 and the flowchart showing the processing of the communication control device of FIG.

From the terminal device 415, segments a1,
Assume that there is a request to reproduce a bit stream A consisting of a2, a3,...
It is assumed that the number of segments that can be read from the storage device per reading cycle (cycle) is three.
It is assumed that the bit stream is divided into segments and stored in each storage device while striping in an arbitrary storage mode. Further, it is assumed that a table describing which storage device each segment is stored in is stored in the communication control device 105.

The disks 1, 2, and 3 in FIG. 4 correspond to the storage devices 101, 102, and 103 in FIG. 1, respectively. Times 11 to 33 are segment reading times, and times t1 to t3 are scheduling times. It is time to perform.

The operation from when the terminal device 410 transmits a request for reproducing image information to when the terminal device 410 starts reproducing image information will be described. When the processing unit 415 of the terminal device 410 transmits a request for reproducing image information (bit stream A), the communication control device 105 receives the request for reproduction (step S500 in FIG. 5).

The communication control unit 105 refers to the table and refers to the first table of the image information requested by the terminal device 410 to be reproduced.
In order to read the segment a1, a segment read request is issued to the control device 150 (FIG. 5, steps S505 and S510).

At time t1, the control device 111 rearranges the read requests of the segments for which the segment read request was made in the cycle immediately before the cycle 1, and performs scheduling for determining the order of the segment read. As an example of an algorithm for performing this scheduling, a method is provided in which priorities are set for normal reproduction and special reproduction such as jump and pause, and a reading order is determined according to the priorities.
It is conceivable that the order of segment reading is determined by giving priority to normal reproduction over special reproduction.

Next, the control device 150 checks the scheduling result (in FIG. 4, a1 and b
1, the segments are read out in the order of c1).
In cycle 1, segment a1 is read from disk 1.

When the control device 150 sends the segment a1 read from the disk 1 to the communication control device 105,
The received segment a1 is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 108 (FIG. 5, step S515). When the segment a1 is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 108, it means that one segment has been stored in the buffer memory 108.
The transmission of the segment a1 to the terminal device 410 is started (FIG. 5, step S520). The transmission process of this segment is automatically performed in parallel with the execution of other processes.

Here, an outline of the following operation will be described with reference to steps S525 to S535 in FIG. 5, and furthermore, a specific description will be made in accordance with the configuration of the apparatus to facilitate understanding.

In step S525, the communication control device 10
5 determines whether or not the buffer memory 108 is not released and the buffer memory 108 is buffering three segments. Then, “the buffer memory 108 is not released and the buffer memory 108
Is buffering three segments "(Yes), a wait state is set in step S525, and in other cases (No), n which is a variable for determining the reading order of the segments is increased by one. (Step S
530) In step S535, it is determined whether or not the reading is completed by referring to the table. If the reading is completed (No), the process is completed (End). Otherwise (Yes), the process is performed. The process branches to S510 to make a read request for the next segment.

Now, the operation will be specifically described with reference to these. The segment a1 whose transmission has been started earlier is still
Since the transmission process has not been completed (that is, the buffer has not been released yet), the buffer memory 108
Has only one segment temporarily stored therein, the communication control device 105 reads the segment a2 from the disk 2 in which the second segment a2 of the bit stream A requested to be reproduced by the terminal device 410 is stored. A read request is issued to the control device 150.

The control device 150 that has received the read request for the segment a2 in cycle 1 performs scheduling at time t2, reads the segment a2 from the disk 2 in cycle 2, and sends the segment to the communication control device 105 in accordance with the scheduling result. a2 is transmitted. The segment a2 is received by the communication control device 105 and is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 108.

As described above, time 1 of cycle 1 in FIG.
1, the segment a1 is read from the disk 1 and the segment a2 at the time 22 of the cycle 2, respectively. In cycle 2, the segment transmitted by the communication control device 105 to the terminal device 410 is the segment a1
Since the segment a2 is read before the end of the cycle 2, the segment transmission to the terminal device 410 is not interrupted.

Now, the segment a2 is stored in the buffer memory 1
08, the buffer memory 108 stores
Since the segment is temporarily stored, the terminal device 410 issues a request to the control device 150 to read the next segment a3 of the bit stream A requested to be reproduced by the terminal device 410 when the segment a2 is newly temporarily stored.

In cycle 2, the segment a3 requested to be read by the control device 105 is read from the disk 3 in cycle 3 and transmitted to the buffer memory 108 in accordance with the result of the read scheduling at time t3.

In cycle 2, the communication control device 105
Transmits the segment a1 from the buffer memory 108 to the terminal device 410, and ends the transmission by the end of cycle 2. If the transmission of the segment a1 from the communication control device 105 to the terminal device 410 does not end in cycle 2 due to a communication error or the like, in cycle 3, the buffer memory 108
Although the segments a1, a2, and a3 must be temporarily stored, even in such a case, the buffer memory 1
Since 08 has a storage capacity of three segments, buffer overflow does not occur, so that the reproduced bit stream is not interrupted.

Further, the communication control device 105 is
Until the transmission of the segment a1 to 10 is completed, that is, until the segment a1 is released from the buffer memory 108, a request to read the segment a4 next to the segment a3 in the bit stream for which reproduction has been requested is not issued. There is no need to temporarily store more than three segments.

Thereafter, by repeating the above operation,
The communication control device 105 can transmit the segments a1, a2, a3,... Constituting the stream A to the terminal device 410 without interruption.

Then, the processing unit 415 of the terminal device 410
Performs bit stream reproduction by sequentially reproducing the transmitted segments. As described above, according to this embodiment, segments obtained by dividing a bit stream are striped and stored in a plurality of storage devices (storage means), and when a playback request is given from a terminal side. When a segment read request for this playback request is issued, segments corresponding to the playback request are sequentially acquired and transmitted to the terminal side, the segment is issued during a certain period, with one segment's playback time at the terminal as one cycle. Scheduling the segment read for the read segment request at the end of the cycle,
In the next cycle, the segment stored in the storage device is read out according to this scheduling result, and the process of distributing it to the terminal is performed in synchronization with each storage device. It is not necessary to perform segment reading in phase, and the degree of freedom of the striping mode of the segment can be secured.

Further, a buffer memory having a storage capacity of n (n is an integer, n ≧ 3) per terminal sequentially stores segments to be transmitted to the terminal side, and further, the communication control device communicates with the terminal. After the session starts, one transmission segment for the terminal is temporarily stored in the storage means, and then transmission of the segment is started. If the number of segments temporarily stored in the storage means is two or less, the acquired segment Since a segment read request is issued at the time when is newly temporarily stored in the buffer memory, there is obtained an effect that even if a delay or the like of segment read occurs, the reproduced bit stream is not interrupted.

Even when a special reproduction request such as pause, slow, jump, or skip reproduction is generated, segment reading is not performed sequentially at the start of the same phase in each cycle, but is performed at predetermined timing. Since the scheduling is performed and the segments are sequentially read in accordance with the scheduling result, there is no interruption in the reproduced bit stream due to a delay in reading the segments.

Further, since the phase is not used, even if the sizes of the read segments are not equal, the bit stream can be reproduced without interruption by the same procedure. In the embodiment of the present invention, the description has been made assuming the distribution of image information, but according to the present invention,
Various types of multimedia information, for example, information such as still images, moving images, and audio can be similarly delivered.

[0054]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the control means sets a segment read request issued during a certain period to a segment read request issued during a certain period, with the reproduction time of one segment at the terminal as one period. Is performed at the end of the period, and in the next period, according to the result of the scheduling, the segments stored in the storage unit are read out and the process to be given to the communication control unit is synchronized between the storage units. Since the communication control means sequentially obtains segments from the control means and transmits them to the terminal side, there is no need to perform segment reading at the same phase of each cycle as in the conventional case, and the The effect of being able to realize a device with a high degree of freedom is obtained.

According to the invention of claim 2, in addition to the effect of claim 1, n per terminal (n is an integer and n ≧ 3)
The storage means having a storage capacity of the number temporarily stores segments to be transmitted to the terminal side sequentially, and further, after the session with the terminal starts, one transmission segment for the terminal is stored in the storage means. After being temporarily stored,
When segment transmission is started and the number of segments temporarily stored in the storage unit is two or less, a new segment read request is issued when the acquired segment is newly temporarily stored in the storage unit. Therefore, even if a delay or the like in reading the segment occurs, there is obtained an effect that no interruption occurs in the reproduced bit stream.

Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the terminal device performs a process of transmitting a reproduction request to the multimedia server and a process of reproducing the distributed multimedia information, and the control means provided in the multimedia server. Performs scheduling of segment reading in response to a segment read request issued during a certain period at the end of the period, with the playback time of one segment at the terminal as one period, and in the next period, according to this scheduling result, The process of reading out the segments stored in the storage means and giving it to the communication control means is repeated between the storage means in synchronization with each other, and the communication control means sequentially acquires the segments from the control means and sends it to the terminal side. Since the data is transmitted, there is no need to perform segment reading at the same phase in each cycle as in the past. , There is an advantage that it is possible to realize a multi-media-on-demand system with a degree of freedom in the striping manner segments.

Furthermore, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a segment obtained by dividing a bit stream is striped and stored in a plurality of storage means.
With the segment playback time as one cycle, scheduling of segment reading in response to a segment read request issued during a certain cycle is performed at the end of the cycle, and is stored in the storage means in the next cycle according to the scheduling result. Since the process of reading out the segment and distributing it to the terminal is repeatedly performed in synchronization with each storage means, there is no need to read out the segment at the same phase of each cycle as in the conventional case, An effect is obtained that a multimedia information distribution method having a degree of freedom in striping mode can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video-on-demand system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional video-on-demand system.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional bit stream reading schedule.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a bit stream reading schedule in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the communication control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 storage device 1 102 storage device 2 103 storage device 3 105 communication control device 1 106 communication control device 2 107 communication control device 3 108 buffer memory 1 109 buffer memory 2 110 buffer memory 3 150 control device 155 internal bus 400 video server 405 communication Medium 410 Terminal device 415 Processing unit

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04N 7/173 H04N 5/93 E (72) Inventor Hideki Sakamoto 3-19-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Stocks In company

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A multimedia server for delivering multimedia information in response to a multimedia information playback request from a terminal, comprising: a plurality of storage means for striping and storing segments obtained by dividing a bit stream; Control means for reading the stored contents of each storage means; and upon receiving the reproduction request from the terminal side, issue a segment read request for the reproduction request and issue a segment corresponding to the reproduction request from the control means. Communication control means for sequentially acquiring and transmitting to the terminal side, wherein the control means sets a segment read time issued during a certain period to a segment read request issued during a certain period, with one segment's reproduction time at the terminal as one cycle. Perform scheduling at the end of the cycle, and in the next cycle, A multimedia server which reads out the segments stored in the storage means in accordance with (1) and repeatedly performs the processing given to the communication control means in synchronization with each storage means. 2. The communication control means according to claim 1, wherein the communication control means has n (n is an integer and n ≧ 3) storage capacities per terminal, and temporarily stores segments to be transmitted to the terminal side sequentially. The communication control means, after starting a session with the terminal, temporarily storing one transmission segment for the terminal in the storage means, and then starting transmission of the segment; and further comprising the storage means When the number of segments temporarily stored in the storage unit is two or less, a new segment read request is issued when the acquired segment is newly temporarily stored in the storage unit. Multimedia server. 3. A system comprising: a terminal device for requesting reproduction of multimedia information; and a multimedia server for distributing multimedia information in response to the reproduction request. At least means for performing a transmission process to a media server and a process for reproducing distributed multimedia information, wherein the multimedia server includes a plurality of storage units for striping and storing segments obtained by dividing a bit stream; Control means for reading the stored contents of the means; and upon receiving the reproduction request from the terminal device, issuing a segment read request for the reproduction request and sequentially acquiring segments corresponding to the reproduction request from the control means. And communication control means for transmitting to the terminal device, the control means With the playback time of one segment in the terminal device as one cycle, scheduling of segment reading in response to a segment read request issued during a certain cycle is performed at the end of the cycle, and in the next cycle, according to the scheduling result, A multimedia on-demand system in which a segment stored in the storage means is read out, and a process to be applied to the communication control means is repeatedly performed in synchronization with each storage means. 4. A method for distributing multimedia information in response to a request for reproducing multimedia information from a terminal, wherein a segment obtained by dividing a bit stream is striped and stored in a plurality of storage units. When the playback request is given from the terminal side, a segment read request for the playback request is issued, and a segment corresponding to the playback request is sequentially acquired and transmitted to the terminal side. With the segment playback time as one cycle, scheduling of segment reading in response to a segment read request issued during a certain cycle is performed at the end of the cycle, and is stored in the storage means in the next cycle according to the scheduling result. Processing for reading out the segment and transmitting the segment to the terminal. In go repeated in synchronization, the method of delivery multimedia information.