SESAME: a Scalable and ExtenSible Architecture for Multimedia Entertainment

The advances in storage, host I/O, and networks entice a variety of on-demand services. To effectively use these resources, we propose a Scalable and Extensible Architecture for Multimedia Entertainment (SESAME) to explore the modularity and scalability of a Karaoke-on-demand (KOD) service. Karaoke popularizes MTV-style entertainment to let viewers sing along. It is shown that hierarchical architecture for KOD scales well and is cost-effective in the network environment where latency is not a major concern. The modularity and scalability are achieved by: 1) distributing Karaoke data at different levels of storage based on popularity to leverage the cost of near-line and on-line storages, and alleviate hot spot access for popular titles, 2) modularizing the server design as well as service hierarchy, and 3) reducing the concurrent accesses to a server by expanding service levels such that an inexpensive computer can be a server. We illustrate live applications in a Karaoke house and in a campus-wide setting. The SESAME approach is being extended to some other areas of interests such as distance learning.