Method of retrieving continuous and non-continuous media data from a file system

A method of scheduling the retrieval of data from disks contained within a file system capable of supporting storage and retrieval of both continuous and non-continuous media data, the file system comprising at least one server, having media data stored on a disk storage system having at least one disk, the method comprising:

• receiving one or more requests for retrieval of a stream of media data transmitted by at least one of a plurality of terminals, each requested media stream being characterized by a playback rate r.sub.i ;
• establishing the requests received within a given time interval in an order for data retrieval based on the location of a track on the disk on which the data is stored;
• scanning the disk from a first end to a second end;
• retrieving the data associated with each request in the established order as the disk is scanned;
• maintaining a buffer for storing the data, said buffer having a capacity for storing the equivalent of at least two data units;
• and
• determining the amount of slack resulting from the retrieval of a particular data request.

A method of scheduling the retrieval of data from recorded media contained within a file system capable of supporting storage and retrieval of both continuous and non-continuous media data, the file system comprising at least one server having media data stored on a disk storage system having at least one disk, the method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of requests for retrieval of a stream of media data transmitted by at least one of a plurality of terminals, each requested media stream being characterized by a playback rate r.sub.i ;
• establishing a common retrieval time period for each requested media stream, said common retrieval period being a function of the playback rate;
• and
• establishing the requests received within the time interval in an order for data retrieval based on the location of a track on the disk on which the data is stored.

A method of scheduling the retrieval of data from recorded media contained within a file system capable of supporting storage and retrieval of both continuous and non-continuous media data, the file system comprising at least one server having media data stored on a disk storage system, the method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of requests for retrieval of a stream of media data transmitted by at least one of a plurality of terminals, each requested media stream being characterized by a playback rate r.sub.i ;
• establishing a common retrieval time period for each requested media stream, said common retrieval period being a function of the playback rate;
• scheduling the retrieval of the requested media streams by determining the corresponding disk track at which each requested media stream is stored;
• and
• scheduling the order of retrieval of the requested media streams such that the amount by which a disk must be rotated so that a disk head associated with the disk storage system is able to locate a disk track at which a particular media stream is stored is reduced.

A method of scheduling the retrieval of data from recorded media contained within a file system capable of supporting storage and retrieval of both continuous and non-continuous media data, the file system comprising at least one server, the method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of requests for retrieval of a stream of media data transmitted by at least one of a plurality of terminals, each requested media stream being characterized by a playback rate r.sub.i ;
• establishing a common retrieval time period for the plurality of requested media streams, said common retrieval period being a function of the playback rate;
• and
• conforming the period of each request to the common retrieval time period by modifying each request's unit of retrieval.

A method of scheduling the retrieval of data from recorded media contained within a file system capable of supporting storage and retrieval of both continuous and non-continuous media data, the method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of requests for retrieval of a stream of media data transmitted by at least one of the plurality of terminals, each requested media stream being characterized by a playback rate r.sub.i ;
• treating each request as a sequence of instances;
• establishing a common retrieval time period for the plurality of requested media streams, said common retrieval period being a function of the playback rate;
• and
• delaying queuing of each request as necessary to insure that the instances of all requests arrive at the same time.