Look-Ahead Scheduling to Support Video-on-Demand Applications

摘要

A system and method of supporting pause-resume in a video-on-demand service of a type which can accommodate multiple viewers sharing a common data stream is described. When a video server receives a performance request from one of the viewers for showing a particular video, it identifies and reserves a look-ahead stream. The look-ahead stream is another video stream which is scheduled to become available after a predetermined time period. When the video is commenced, a common data stream for the video is concurrently transmitted from the video server to reception equipment at the viewers' locations. Transmission of the common data stream causes the particular video to be performed on the viewers' reception equipment. When the video server receives a pause request and then a subsequent resume request from one of the viewers, it transmits the video via the look ahead stream instead of the common data stream.