A media proxy architecture for an NFS-based VOD service on the intranet

An NFS-based VOD (video on demand) service is preferable in organizations which have an intranet because it is easy to set up a VOD service. However, some problems arise in achieving an NFS-based VOD service on the intranet. Firstly, the performance of NFS degrades seriously when the network delay becomes large because NFS requests data by the 'stop and wait' protocol. Secondly, packet loss affects video quality seriously in an intranet because NFS requests the retransmission of the lost data. To overcome the above problems, the authors propose a media proxy architecture. In this architecture, they set up a media proxy between the clients and the server. The result of a measurement experiment shows that a client can play video data smoothly in spite of the existence of packet losses and a large delay.