KR20030039344A - The Virtual File System for Online Multimedia Content Service - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A virtual file system for an online multimedia contents service is provided to offer the online multimedia contents service without receiving a multimedia contents file stored in the file system from a remote server by storing a plurality of multimedia contents file in a storing device of a user PC. CONSTITUTION: The virtual file system comprises an FIT(File Information Table, 21) storing the location information of the files stored in the virtual file system, an FAT(File Allocation Table, 22) storing the location information of the multimedia contents file placed in the virtual file system, and an FDA(File Data Area, 23) storing the multimedia contents data actually. The virtual file system requests the certification for the user playing authority information to a remote server. After a remote certification server judges the playing authority, a certification result is transmitted to the virtual file system. The virtual file system decides to play the multimedia data according to the certification result of the remote server.

Description

The Virtual File System for Online Multimedia Content Service

The present invention relates to a method for constructing an online multimedia file system for reducing an amount of high-capacity multimedia data transmitted through a communication network in providing an online multimedia content service. It is an object of the present invention to store a plurality of multimedia content files in a storage medium of a user PC to provide an online multimedia content service without receiving multimedia content files stored in the file system from a remote server.

As a general technique for reducing network transmission load of online multimedia contents service, buffer technology using space for temporary storage in computer memory is used. That is, through the buffer secured in the computer memory for the multimedia content file currently being played, data is received and stored from the remote multimedia server, and the data transmission synchronization related to the multimedia content playback is synchronized with the multimedia player and the remote multimedia server. To adjust.

In the above method, for real-time multimedia content service, continuous data transmission is performed in the middle of playing multimedia content from a remote multimedia server. Therefore, when a user repeatedly plays the corresponding multimedia content several times, there is a problem in that the same multimedia content must be continuously transmitted while the same multimedia content is played to the user through a communication network.

In order to solve the above problems, when retransmission occurs for the same multimedia content file, the transmission load of the remote multimedia server can be reduced by repeatedly playing the multimedia content in the buffer secured in the memory of the user PC. .

However, a user tends to repeatedly request a plurality of multimedia contents according to personal preferences, rather than continuously repeating any one multimedia contents. For example, consider an online music broadcasting service. The user registers a specific song through his album according to his personal taste and listens to it repeatedly. And if your personal tastes change, you repeat the process of changing your album. As in the above example, the user's personal preference has a feature of repeatedly playing back a plurality of contents rather than a single multimedia content. Therefore, the buffering system for a single multimedia content file may be synchronized with a remote multimedia server in consideration of real-time network speed. Although it is possible to provide an online multimedia service, it cannot reduce the network load of the multimedia service provider.

The present invention has a feature of storing a plurality of multimedia content files in the storage medium of the user PC to solve the above problems.

To this end, the present invention, by building a virtual file system that can operate a plurality of multimedia content files, perform a synchronization process through an online multimedia remote server, the user playback rights for illegal copy protection and the user playback through a remote server It has the feature of performing authorization authentication processing.

1 is a basic configuration of the present invention

2 is a structural diagram of a virtual file system of the present invention

3 is a structural diagram of a file information table (FIT) and a file information record (FIR) of a virtual file system

4 is a structural diagram of a file allocation table FAT and a file data area FDA of a virtual file system

5 is an example of multimedia content stored in a virtual file system

6 is a process diagram of processing a virtual file system of the present invention.

The basic configuration of the present invention is configured as shown in FIG. By constructing a virtual file system 14 on a storage medium of a user PC receiving multimedia contents from a remote multimedia server 11 connected to the Internet 12 and operating it efficiently, it is transmitted to the Internet or a communication network. An object is to reduce the amount of transmission of multimedia content data.

The virtual file system 14 of the present invention stores a plurality of multimedia content files and proposes an efficient caching operation method of a multimedia content service that is changed according to a user's personal preference, and the multimedia content stored in the virtual file system 14 is provided. In order to prevent illegal copying of a file, content copyright protection may be performed by granting a user reproduction right and authenticating the user reproduction right through a remote server.

Hereinafter, a method of constructing a virtual file system for an online multimedia service according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a structural diagram of a virtual file system for an online multimedia service according to the present invention. There is a file information table (FIT: File Information Table hereinafter referred to as FIT) 21 having the location information of the files stored in the virtual file system at the top, and the location information of the multimedia content file located in the virtual file system after the FIT. A file allocation table (FAT: referred to as FAT) is stored, and finally, a file data area (FDA: referred to as FDA, referred to as FDA) where actual multimedia content data is stored. It consists of three parts.

The structure of the FIT consists of a structure in which a plurality of file information records (FIRs, hereinafter referred to as FIRs) of FIG. 3 exist. The FIR of FIG. 3 is divided into seven fields, which are information about one multimedia content file stored in the virtual file system. A detailed description of each field is shown in Table 1.

Field structure of file information record (FIR) Field name Contents URL (31) Server location information where the multimedia data exists SIZ (32) File size information for the multimedia data PRI (33) Storage priority information of the multimedia data RIG (34) About user playback rights of the multimedia data RUR (35) Remote server location information for user replay authorization in the RIG field FAT (36) FAT start location information where the multimedia data is stored RES (37) Reserved area

The PRI field 33 of Table 1 means storage priority information. When a plurality of multimedia data files are to be stored in a limited virtual file system space, the priority of the field is insufficient when the free space of the virtual file system is insufficient. Therefore, the lowest priority multimedia content is deleted. Factors that determine the priority are determined by the frequency played by the user and the user's selection priority. The selection priority may be determined by the multimedia service provider or provided as an option for the user to select when receiving the multimedia service.

The RIG field 34 of Table 1 means user reproduction authority information for preventing illegal copying, and is used together with the RUR 35 field. The RUR 35 field stores the location information of the remote authentication server to determine the validity of the user reproduction authority information of the RIG 34 field.

The virtual file system of the present invention requests the remote server in the RUR 35 field to authenticate the user playback authority information in the RIG 34 field, and the authentication remote server uses the RIR 34 field value to determine whether to play the authority. After the determination, the result is notified to the virtual file system. The virtual file system determines whether to play the multimedia data according to the authentication notification result of the remote server. Therefore, the virtual file system of the present invention has a copy protection function because the user cannot copy any multimedia data.

4 is a structural diagram of a FAT system of the present invention. The FAT has location information configured by dividing the FDA of the virtual file system obtained by the user into a predetermined block size. In other words, if the FDA is divided into n pieces with a certain block size, the FAT area is also divided into n areas, and one block 41 of the FAT has one block 42 of the corresponding FDA.

5 illustrates how arbitrary multimedia data is allocated to a FAT. The FAT block has a list structure with the address of the next contiguous FAT block in the block. In the case of the last FAT block, the address of the FAT block is set to '0'.

6 shows a flowchart of a virtual file system proposed by the present invention. If the user wants to secure the multimedia content data that he / she wants to play (62), the virtual file system finds whether the multimedia content exists through the FIT. (63) If present, the authority URL field of the FIR is displayed. The remote authentication server stores the information on the remote authentication server, and the remote authentication server uses the user authority information sent from the virtual file system to determine whether to play the data and notifies the virtual file system of the result. The authentication result of the server is determined, and the corresponding multimedia content is played. If the user is not authorized, the multimedia content is not played.

In FIG. 6, if the multimedia content that the user wants to play does not exist in the virtual file system, the virtual file system requests the corresponding multimedia content file information from the remote multimedia server. Together, the multimedia content file information is transmitted to the virtual file system, and the virtual file system checks the free space for storing the multimedia content in the FDA area.

If the virtual file system does not secure enough space to store the multimedia content, the multimedia content having the lowest priority is deleted from the FIT to secure a storage area of the multimedia content to be transmitted from the remote multimedia server. )

As described above, in the virtual file system construction method for the online multimedia content service according to the present invention, a service provider is provided for providing high quality multimedia content to a user and serving high quality multimedia content to a multimedia service provider. It suggests an efficient way to reduce the network burden and additional server cost due to the increase of users.

In addition, the present invention has the effect of preventing the illegal distribution of multimedia content by setting the user playback rights in the virtual file system, and performs the playback rights authentication through a remote authentication server in order to prevent illegal duplication of the user.

Claims (3)

In constructing an online multimedia real-time service, a virtual network capable of storing a plurality of multimedia content files in a storage medium of a user's PC in order to reduce a server additional cost that increases proportionally with the increase in the number of communication networks and users burdened by a multimedia content service provider. A virtual file system for an online multimedia content service, comprising operating a virtual file system according to a method and priority for building a file system. The method of claim 1, further comprising a file information table for storing multimedia content information stored in the virtual file system, a file allocation table for storing location information of multimedia content stored in the virtual file system, and a file data area for storing multimedia content data. Virtual file system for an online multimedia content service characterized by a virtual file system. The method of claim 2, further comprising: storing user authority information and a remote authentication server location in a file information table for securing multimedia content stored in a virtual file system, and authenticating the user authority information stored in the virtual file system through a remote authentication server. Virtual file system for an online multimedia content service, characterized in that the notification, and determines whether to play the multimedia content.