SIVSS.org

The SIVSS project will develop and integrate a highly scalable switching fabric, capable of up to 1 Terabit of bandwidth performance. The near linear scaling to Terabyte performance will dramatically reduce the cost of large scale video distribution systems required by projects such as “Prestospace” and large scale security applications. Specific attention will be placed on understanding the simulated operation and detailed reliability considerations of multi-switch network systems and their caching requirements. This will be the focus of Xyratex, Simula Labs, Forth and Glasshouse.

The project will also develop and integrate high density, high performance storage systems based around the emerging low cost SATA disk drive technology. This low cost technology will be integrated into ultra dense packages to create a new paradigm of cost and performance for near line storage systems. This will enable large and affordable high performance storage caches to be deployed. This cache will be used to support all the real time interactions within the system. Specific attention will be placed on controlling and enhancing the reliability and performance of the low cost disk drive technology. This objective will be the focus of Xyratex, Hi-Stor and Glasshouse.

Figure 1 – Scaleable Intelligent Video Server System

The project will further integrate into the new network infrastructure a high density and high speed digital tape technology using a revolutionary magneto-optically controlled tape drive. The drive utilizes a massively parallel recording head technology which will deliver a significant increase in performance over conventional tape drives. Data traffic streaming between low cost disk and high speed tape will be controlled by a new “data mover” controller. This will significantly reduce the load on the server for many high volume applications. This will be the focus of Hi-Stor, O-Mass, Xyratex and Glasshouse.

Integration of the high speed tape, data mover controller, SATA storage system and revolutionary new switch technology with video processing technology will allow the creation of systems capable of scaling to both the high bandwidth requirements for mass distribution of video and the real time requirements of the editing suite. The combination of low cost, high density, high performance storage devices with highly scalable switching technology is shown in Figure 1. This new technology will be a strategic requirement of all large scale video network deployment.

Summary