Real-Time Communication Scheduling in a Multicomputer Video Server

In this paper, we address the problem of scheduling communication over the interconnection network of a distributed-memory multicomputer video server. We show that this problem is closely related to the problem of data distribution and movie scheduling in such a system. A solution is proposed in this paper that addresses these three issues at once. The movies are distributed evenly over all nodes of the multicomputer. The proposed solution minimizes the contention for links over the switch. The proposed solution makes movie scheduling very simple if the first block of the movie is scheduled, the rest of the movie is automatically scheduled. Moreover, if the first block of the movie stream is scheduled without network contention, the proposed solution guarantees that there will be no network contention during the entire duration of playback of that movie. We show that the proposed approach to communication scheduling is optimal in utilizing the network resources. Extensive simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. 1999 Academic Press