Fast-path I/O architecture for high performance streaming server

In a disk-network scenario where expensive data transfers are the norm, such as in multimedia streaming applications, for example, a fast-path I/O architecture is generally considered to be “good practice.” Here, I/O performance can be improved through minimizing the number of in-memory data movements and context switches. In this paper, we report the results of the design and implementation of a high-performance streaming server using cheap hardware units assembled directly on a test card (i.e., NS card). The hardware part of our architecture is open to further reuse, extension, and integration with other applications even in the case of inexpensive and/or faster hardware. From the viewpoint of software-aided I/O, we offer Stream Disk Array (SDA) for scatter/gather-style block I/O, EXT3NS multimedia file system for large-scale file I/O, and interoperable streaming server for stream I/O.