SYSTEM FOR RETRIEVING DATA IN A VIDEO SERVER

摘要

In an audio/video server (100) blocks of data are read from a storage medium (110) by a reader (180) and supplied to users in the form of data streams. The storage medium (110) comprises a plurality of storage units (102, 104, 106, 108). The blocks are stored in at least two different and randomly selected storage units. A scheduler (170) controls reading of blocks from the storage medium (110). For each block to be read, the scheduler (170) selects one storage unit from the storage units in which the block is stored such that the playback load on the storage units is balanced. The scheduler (170) issues a read request to the reader (180) for reading the block from the selected storage unit.