Interactive video distribution systems – User-requested video program system – Video-on-demand
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-05
2001-04-03
Faile, Andrew (Department: 2611)
Interactive video distribution systems
User-requested video program system
Video-on-demand
C725S091000, C725S098000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06212682
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sound/moving picture reproduction system used in a video server system or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been proposed several types of video server systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1
shown a conceivable video server system
100
. In this system, a host device
101
includes a data storage device
102
, which stores therein a plurality of sets of sound/moving picture data representative of a plurality of movies and programs. A plurality of data reproducing devices
110
are connected to the host device
101
. When a certain sound/moving picture is requested from a data reproducing device
110
, the host device
101
transfers the requested sound/moving picture data to the data reproducing device
110
that has requested the data.
The data storing device
102
in constructed from a disk array of a plurality of hard disk devices, which will be referred to as HDDs hereinafter. The plurality of sets of sound/moving picture data are stored in the plurality of HDDs. When some reproduction devices
110
transmit request data R to the host device
101
, a CPU
104
in the host device
110
retrieves the requested sets of sound/moving picture data from the data storing device
102
. The retrieved sets of data are than transferred via an I/O port
105
and a host bus
107
to a network interface circuit (which will be referred to au a NIC hereinafter)
106
. The NIC
106
transmits the sets of sound/moving picture data, via a transfer path
108
, to a hub
109
, which in turn distributes these sets of sound/moving picture data to the data reproducing devices
110
that have requested the sound/moving picture data.
It is now assumed that the total number of the data reproducing devices
110
is “n” (“n” is an integer higher than one (1)) and that the transfer rate, at which the host device
101
can transfer the sound/moving picture data to the data reproducing devices, is “D” [bps], for example. In this case, the total data transfer amount DT, by which data is transferred at maximum along the data transfer path
108
, is calculated as D×n. The amount of data transferred through the host bus
107
is therefore equal to D×n. It is apparent that the amount of data transferred through the host bus
107
will increase in proportion to the number of the data reproducing devices
110
. Accordingly, when the number of the data reproducing devices
110
increases, it becomes necessary to use a hub
109
with high power and a data transfer path
108
with high capability. It further becomes necessary to use a NSC
106
, a host bus
107
, a data storing device
102
, and a CPU
104
all with high capability.
For example, the data storing device
102
is constructed from an array of the HDDs
103
. Because data can be written into and read from the HDDe
103
in parallel, the data input/output speed of the data storing device
102
is high. When the amount of data to be transferred increases, it is necessary to increase the number of HDDC
103
, from which data will be read in parallel. The data storing device
102
becomes a large sized disk array. The CPU
104
, which controls the reading and transferring operation of the data storing device
102
, is also required to perform its operation at a higher speed. The entire system will be expensive and will be large. The entire system may possibly generate too much amount of heat.
It is therefore, an object of the present invention to overcome the above-describe drawbacks, and to provide an improved sound/moving picture data reproduction system which can be constructed at a low cost, but which has a sufficiently high data transfer capability and therefore which can perform high quality transfer operation even with a large number of data reproducing devices.
In order to attain the above and other objects, the present invention provides a sound/moving picture reproduction system, comprising: a main data transferring device including a sound/moving picture data storing portion storing sound/moving picture data; a plurality of auxiliary data transferring devices connected to the main data transferring device, each of the plurality of auxiliary data transferring devices including a copied data storing portion storing copied data of the received sound/moving picture data; and a plurality of data reproducing devices connected to at least a part of the plurality of auxiliary data transferring devices, each of the plurality of data reproducing devices reproducing received sound/moving picture data.
All the plurality of auxiliary data transferring devices may be directly connected in parallel to the main data transferring device. In this case, the plurality of data reproducing devices are connected to all the plurality of auxiliary data transferring devices. Or, the plurality of auxiliary data transferring devices may be arranged in more than one stages so that the plurality of auxiliary data transferring devices include a first stage of auxiliary data transferring devices that are directly connected in parallel to the main data transferring device and at least one subsequent stage of auxiliary data transferring device that are connected to the first stage of auxiliary data transferring devices, the at least one subsequent stage of auxiliary data transferring devices including a final stage of auxiliary data transferring devices that are connected in parallel to the plurality of data reproducing devices.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5341474 (1994-08-01), Gelman et al.
patent: 5583994 (1996-12-01), Rangan
patent: 5612897 (1997-03-01), Rege
patent: 5717854 (1998-02-01), Egawa et al.
patent: 5790935 (1998-08-01), Payton
patent: 5892913 (1999-04-01), Adiga et al.
patent: 5948070 (1999-09-01), Fujita
patent: 5978567 (1999-11-01), Rebane et al.
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha and Xing Inc.
Faile Andrew
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Srivanstava Vivek
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