Efficient support for interactive browsing operations in clustered CBR video servers

Providing efficient support for interactive browsing operations such as fast-forward (ff) and fast-backward (fb) is essential in video-on-demand and other multimedia server systems. In this paper, we propose two basic approaches to scheduling interactive browsing operations: 1) the prefetching approach and 2) the grouping approach. Block-skipping and frame-skipping algorithms are presented for constant bit rate (CBR) data blocks. These algorithms can precisely schedule video streams for both normal play and interactive browsing operations