In the rapidly evolving field of multimedia technology, 360° videos have emerged as a groundbreaking format that offers immersive experiences. However, it poses significant challenges for video servers, such as high bandwidth demand, large video size, and heterogeneous user requirements. I propose two novel scheduling policies for 360° video servers that aim to optimize the quality of experience (QoE) for users while minimizing the server cost. The instructor/observer policy takes into account different user roles to more effectively prioritize content distribution. The field-of-view policy leverages the viewing angle of the user to determine which threads to prioritize based on whether "content of interest" is being viewed.
I evaluate these algorithms by implementing a HTTP video server and user-space thread scheduler to conduct a series of experiments to evaluate average thread runtime. I conclude that if clients seek to download the video as fast as possible, it is beneficial to choose a large base time quantum. The field-of-view scheduling policy works best when the video’s horizon is of interest to many users. But when seeking to reduce the download time of high-priority clients, the instructor/observer policy with a high instructor multiplier is the best option.
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