Multimedia information systems are distinct from traditional information systems, particularly in terms of scheduling, media data, servers, and a number of other important issues. The relatively large size of multimedia data and the high bandwidth requirements for multimedia streams require new storage systems, buffering, delivery, and networking schemes. This work addresses many of these issues by focusing on the following: Disk scheduling and storage hierarchy, Configuration of multimedia servers and buffer management, Delivery scheduling for multimedia streams, Supporting user interactions, Document modeling and temporal modeling of multimedia data, and Integrated multimedia information system. Chapters in this book have been written by well-known and leading researchers in the field. The material is original and includes the most recent research results on topics such as data retrieval from disks, server architecture, buffering, synchronization, and supporting user interactions. The material has been closely edited to form a uniform and cohesive compilation. Multimedia Information Storage and Management can be used for students studying multimedia information and applications. This work will also be of special interest to researchers and developers of multimedia software and hardware systems, network protocol designers, and multimedia tool designers.

Multimedia information systems are quite different from traditional information systems, especially in data types, modeling, delivery, and user interface. The large size of multimedia data and the high bandwidth requirement of multime dia streams require new storage, buffering, delivery, and networking schemes. The presentational nature of multimedia applications requires a proper syn chronization between multimedia streams, and the composition of multimedia documents in the distributed environment should overcome the heterogeneity of underlying systems. This book is edited for undergraduate and graduate students studying mul timedia information and applications, researchers and developers of various multimedia software and hardware systems, multimedia tool developers, user interface designers, and network protocol designers by including 17 chapters focused on the following major issues: * Disk scheduling and storage hierarchy. * Configuration of multimedia servers and buffer management. * Delivery scheduling for multimedia streams. * Supporting user interactions. Document modeling and temporal modeling of multimedia data. * * Integrated multimedia information system.