File system and method for administrating storage space and bandwidth in a computer system serving media assets

• US 7,849,194 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2007
• Issued: 12/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Espial Incorporated (Enghouse Systems Limited)
• Original Assignee: Kasenna, Inc. (Enghouse Systems Limited)
• Inventors: Horen, Robert S., Singal, Sanjay
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee; John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran; Nghi V
• Application Number:
  US11/801,997
• Publication Number:
  US 20080016220A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,306 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 709/231, 709/232, 709/233
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2312 Data placement on disk arrays data placement in general G06F3/0604
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/232 Content retrieval operation locally within server, e.g. reading video streams from disk arrays storage management G06F3/0604; details of querying and searching of video data from a database G06F16/739

Abstract

Method, computer program product and server computer system for use in a client server computer architecture. The server sends media assets over computer network to client computer and maintains file system organized into plurality of asset groups, each asset group comprising plurality of media assets, wherein media assets share storage medium bandwidth and storage space on server computer that is reserved for asset group to which plurality of media assets belong. An asset group placement policy module is provided that evaluates attributes of asset group to determine optimal placement of asset group within the file system of server computer system, avoiding replication of assets and spreading asset group across multiple file systems wherever possible. A media asset placement policy module is provided that evaluates asset bandwidth to determine optimal placement for asset and available resources and use this evaluation to distribute media assets within asset groups.

Claims

1. A method for administering storage space and storage bandwidth of media assets stored on a server computer system, the method comprising:

creating an asset group, comprising;

defining a data structure that contains a list of pointers indicating storage locations of media assets stored in the asset group and values of attributes associated with the asset group;

determining a storage bandwidth requirement by calculating the attribute values;

assigning the asset group to a file system;

storing media assets in accordance with the asset group;

specifying a maximum simultaneous playouts for asset group attribute, a maximum bit rate of the assets installed in asset group attribute, a guaranteed possible playouts attribute, and a resource quota attribute;

calculating the storage bandwidth component of the resource quota by multiplying together a maximum simultaneous playouts attribute, a maximum bit rate attribute, and a default guaranteed possible playouts attribute (DGPP);

assigning the asset group to the file system maintained on the server;

storing the media asset(s) in accordance with the asset group; and

defining a data structure that includes a list of pointers that contain values indicating the storage locations of the media assets stored in the asset group, as well as either pointers to values of the attributes or the attribute values themselves rather than pointers or a combination of the pointers and actual values

the asset group providing shared storage space and storage bandwidth on a server computer system for media assets, the server computer system capable of connection to a computer network and communicating with a client computer system over the computer network;

calculating a resource quota, the resource quota specifying storage space and storage bandwidth available to the asset group;

assigning the asset group to at least one file system, comprising placing the asset group in a single file system without replicating media assets;

installing at least one media asset in the asset group; and

making the media asset available for transmission to the client computer system over the computer network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating a resource quota comprises multiplying a value representing a maximum bit rate at which a media asset in the asset group may be played by a value representing a maximum number of assets in the asset group that may be played simultaneously.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein installing assets comprises evaluating bandwidth for the media asset to determine in select an asset group in the media asset is placed.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of installing comprises associating metadata with a media asset.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of installing comprises copying the media asset into a storage location.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising distributing the at least one media asset, from the server computer at one or more client computers, by sending the at least one media asset and the associated metadata from the server computer to the one or more client computers preconfigured to accept the media asset.

7. The method of claim 1 where in the client computer is defined as an edge server computer.

8. A computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer readable media and containing instructions, which, when executed by a computer, administers storage space and storage bandwidth of media assets stored on a server computer system, by:

creating an asset group, comprising;

defining a data structure that contains a list of pointers indicating storage locations of media assets stored in the asset group and values of attributes associated with the asset group;

determining a storage bandwidth requirement by calculating the attribute values;

assigning the asset group to a file system;

storing media assets in accordance with the asset group;

specifying a maximum simultaneous playouts for asset group attribute, a maximum bit rate of the assets installed in asset group attribute, a guaranteed possible playouts attribute, and a resource quota attribute;

calculating the storage bandwidth component of the resource quota by multiplying together a maximum simultaneous playouts attribute, a maximum bit rate attribute, and a default guaranteed possible playouts attribute (DGPP);

assigning the asset group to the file system maintained on the server;

storing the media asset(s) in accordance with the asset group; and

defining a data structure that includes a list of pointers that contain values indicating the storage locations of the media assets stored in the asset group, as well as either pointers to values of the attributes or the attribute values themselves rather than pointers or a combination of the pointers and actual values,

the asset group providing shared storage space and storage bandwidth on a server computer system for media assets, the server computer system capable of connection to a computer network and playing the media assets to a client computer system over the computer network;

calculating a resource quota, the resource quota specifying storage space and storage bandwidth available to the asset group;

assigning the asset group to at least one file system, comprising placing the asset group in a single file system without replicating media assets;

installing at least one media asset in the asset group; and

making the media asset available for transmission to the client computer system over the computer network.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein calculating a resource quota comprises multiplying a value representing a maximum bit rate at which a media asset in the asset group may be played by a value representing a maximum number of assets in the asset group that may be played simultaneously.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein installing assets comprises evaluating bandwidth for the media asset to determine in select an asset group in the media asset is placed.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the step of installing comprises associating metadata with a media asset.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the step of installing comprises copying the media asset into a storage location.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 further comprising distributing of the at least one media asset, from the server computer at one or more client computers, by sending the at least one media asset and the associated metadata from the server computer to the one or more client computers preconfigured to accept the media asset.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 where in the client computer is defined as an edge server computer.