n-Block Prefetching Method using Hybrid Storage adaptable to an IPTV Set-Top Box

초록

This paper proposes a new method of cascading prefetching n-blocks from a hard disk to the NVCache together to reduce the spin-up frequency of a hybrid storage and thus enhance I/O performance in IPTV Set-top Box. The proposed method consists of three steps: (1) analyzing the stream pattern of read requests for smooth play-back of video streams; (2) determining the number of video stream blocks prefetched to the NVCache; and (3) replacing stream blocks in the NVCache according to the block replacement policy. The proposed method can decrease the latency time of a hybrid storage and reduce the power consumption of an IPTV Set-top Box. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides better average response times compared to an existing AMP (Adaptive Multistream Prefetching) method by 25.2%. It also reduces by 20.8% the average power consumption over that of the existing EXCES (EXternal Caching in Energy Saving Storage System) method.