Queued Multimedia Storage Management for Limited Capacity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current video distribution systems, such as VOD services, are limited by the storage capacity provided by television network providers, restricting consumers' ability to store and access a wide variety of multimedia content as they desire, without relying on the content library chosen by the provider.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for queued management of multimedia storage, where location information for selected content is stored in a queue associated with each subscriber, allowing retrieval and storage of multimedia content from a remote content server, enabling personalized content selection and storage beyond the limitations of the provider's storage capacity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If video content is distributed via broadcast method, then all consumers receive the same video content at the same time, but consumers cannot select specific video content for viewing
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments video content into individual selectable items in the queue, allowing each consumer to choose specific content while maintaining the overall broadcast distribution infrastructure. The queue is divided into position slots that can be independently managed.
Solution Approach 2:
The queue positions are dynamic rather than fixed - when a consumer views content at a particular queue position, that position becomes available for the next consumer in line. This dynamic reassignment allows flexible content selection while maintaining orderly distribution.
2Quantity of substance
If VOD services store limited video content based on consumer demand, then storage capacity is reduced, but the library of video content remains limited to provider selections
Solution Approach 1:
The system adds a temporal dimension to content storage by implementing a queue system where content is stored in sequence positions rather than requiring simultaneous storage of all content. This allows the system to manage limited storage space while providing access to a broader variety of content over time.
Solution Approach 2:
Content is pre-positioned in the queue in advance based on consumer demand patterns, allowing the system to prepare and organize content for future retrieval without requiring all content to be stored simultaneously in the limited storage space.
3Adaptability or versatility
If consumers can select specific video content in VOD services, then content personalization is improved, but storage requirements increase beyond limited capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a virtual queue structure that references content locations rather than duplicating all content. Each queue position contains metadata pointing to the actual content, allowing multiple consumers to access content without requiring multiple physical copies in limited storage.
Solution Approach 2:
The queue management system acts as an intermediary between consumer content selections and the limited storage infrastructure. It manages the mapping between queue positions and actual content storage locations, enabling personalized selection while abstracting the storage constraints from the user experience.
4Productivity
If a queue system manages location information for multimedia content, then content retrieval efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter representation from storing complete content to storing only queue position identifiers and location metadata. This parameter reduction simplifies the data structure while maintaining efficient retrieval capabilities through the queue position indexing system.
Data Source
AI summary
A queue management module receives a message to queue location information for multimedia content. The queue management module stores the location information in a queue corresponding to a subscriber. The queue management module receives a message for location information from a video distribution module. The queue management module transmits a message for retrieval of multimedia content to the video distribution module. In other examples, a queue agent module transmits a message for location information for multimedia content to a queue management module. The queue agent module receives a message for retrieval of content from the queue management module. The queue agent module retrieves the multimedia content from the remote content server using the location information received in the message for retrieval of content. A data storage module identifies available storage in limited storage provided for the subscriber and stores the retrieved multimedia content in the limited storage for the subscriber.