DISTRIBUTED APPLICATION DESIGN ISSUES

PRESENTED BY: VARUN JAIN 119

DISTRIBUTED APPLICATION DESIGN ISSUES

Need to consider design issues? Areas of considerations:
Networking Communication Infrastructure

Distributed workflows

Areas of concern

Caching requirements

Compression Decompression Requirements

Networking Communication Infrastructure

Distributed workflows

Areas of concern

Caching requirements

Compression Decompression Requirements

LOCATION INDEPENDENCE
Application can run on any node and maintain the same workflow patterns irrespective of locations of servers/workstations Use logical addressing instead of referring an object by its physical location

Achieved by creating an abstraction layer in addressing of objects and encapsulating knowledge of lower layers
Ensures the same sequence of operations for a business process irrespective of users location in network

NETWORK PROTOCOL AND COMMUNICATION FUNCTION

Workstation/servers on different LAN communicate with each other Need to define standards for: Network Layer Interfaces Ensures common network interface for application on devices with different operating software Protocols Defines the standard form and contents of the message exchanged between nodes Communication Function Specifies the nature of communication between workstation and servers

NETWORK INDEPENDENCE
LAN may be configured on different requirements and may have different network speeds
IEEE standards/Token-ring/ATM/FDDI Twisted pair/co-axial/fiber optic cables

Applications should be able to freely move data across multiple media types and protocols
Design the system to ensure workflow integrity Single view of LAN/WAN network to ensure flexibility

Networking Communication Infrastructure

Distributed workflows

Areas of concern

Caching requirements

Compression Decompression Requirements

STORAGE AND CACHE CONSIDERATION

A cache provides an immediate staging area allowing faster prefetching and retaining of objects Multitier cache storage should be used for multimedia objects Why? Storage available on fast magnetic disk much smaller than that on optical disk libraries

Objects reside in the cache as long as they are needed, for longer duration if required
Network performance is maintained Scaling and Format Translation are not known until client workstation calls for the object

 Cache may be stored centrally at a cache server

Cache can also be stored at one of the following locations depending on the design and organization of the network: Scan capture node QC or scan capture cache Application database node general image cache Fileserver workstation image cache

Networking Communication Infrastructure

Distributed workflows

Areas of concern

Caching requirements

Compression Decompression Requirements

COMPRESSION INTEGRATED IN WORKFLOW

Why compression? User convenience and faster transmission Hardware capacity of different components in a network Compression can be performed by hardware providing the input (Scanner/Camera) or by special compression software Compression may be performed at 3 different stages according to the requirement: On the fly as the object is scanned or captured As a separate pass before or after indexing/Quality checks By a separate compression server

DECOMPRESSION INTEGRATED IN WORKFLOW

Why decompression? Display Printing Facsimile transmission of multimedia objects
Compression can be performed by hardware providing the output (Printer/Monitor) or by special compression software

Decompression may be performed at 3 different stages according to the requirement:

At the workstation At the multimedia object server At a dedicated decompression server that may also provide format translation

Networking Communication Infrastructure

Distributed workflows

Areas of concern

Caching requirements

Compression Decompression Requirements

WORKFLOW INTEGRATION OF INDEXING Why index?

Index is much smaller in size as compared to data object Speeds the search for the data objects It provides random access pointer to the data object E.g: Object ID can be embedded in hypermedia documents to quickly reference the object

Following are the type of indexing methods: Object Identification Indexing Content Based Indexing Voice and Picture synchronization indexing
Annotation

OBJECT IDENTIFICATION INDEXING

Works for document image scanning system
When images are scanned, they are given unique identification for each document page scanned Identification may consist of unique file name derived by the system using a sequential number and/or Date/Time

Object ID may be used to link the container document or record to the multimedia objects
Indexing can be performed before/after the scanning, depending on the workflow design Advantage: Data objects can be stored on servers and media that provide most efficient storage and can be later accessed quickly using object ID

CONTENT BASED INDEXING

Used in audio/videocassette tapes for indexing of voice/audio/video based media It allows user to mark section of interest by placing MARKERS Why? Quicker access the section of interest for display Possible to clip out section of audio sequence for merging into a new sequence Faster playback of audio/video is possible Markers can be stored in the same multimedia object or in a separate reference object

VOICE AND PICTURE SYNCHRONIZATION

Used in indexing of full motion video

Similar in concept to audio indexing but is more complex

Complex? Sound and video components stored separately Sound and voice input use different controller (Analog sound with digital video recording) Sound and video components may require different decompression algorithm and hardware Advantage: Strategically placed indexing can assist in resynchronizing sound with picture during playback

ANNOTATION
Definition: They are comments or footnotes defined to clarify a thought or an idea

Text Annotations

Document Image Annotations

Annotations

Annotations for sound and video

Image Annotations

 Text Annotations

Simple
Can be added/edited/printed with or without the original image depending on design of workflow Image Annotations They are scanned image segments of the annotated text Image Annotations can be added/cropped/printed but the content of remaining section of annotations cannot be edited Annotations for Sound and video E.g marketing director after reviewing recorded video clip may record a set of comments to the field sales force Require index markers to indicate the exact location in the sound or video object where they should be viewed

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