VIA is truly suited to VoD environments that require robust and scalable solutions. The basis for Voyager’s strength is the Voyager Interconnect Architecture (VIA) it sits on.

VIA is a distributed multi-computing architecture that utilizes high capacity hierarchical storage devices to provide storage and streaming of large quantities of video data.

VIA is based on scalable processing nodes interconnected by independent load-sharing data paths which facilitate inter-processor communication and provide access to multiple storage devices and user access ports. To the enterprise providing VoD services this means no single point of failure, unlimited scalability and a demand based system that easily adapts to thousands of simultaneous VoD streams.


Key Features

Scalability: System expansion with VIA is achieved by adding one or more access, storage and switching modules. The result is a totally flexible building block approach that can be easily scaled from a single video stream to thousands of simultaneous independent streams. The use and coordination of the VIA resources is managed by the system to automatically maximize the number of simultaneous subscribers.

Flexible Delivery Channels: A multi-node configuration is capable of supporting multiple types of network interfaces simultaneously. This enables service providers to deliver video to subscribers over IP or through a cable network from a single system to either PC’s or those with more sophisticated digital decoders/set top boxes. The difference resides at the interface to the user network and does not affect the internal operations of VIA

Inherent Fault Tolerance: VIA is inherently fault tolerant without requiring fully redundant hardware. Every I/O and storage device is fully and equally accessible by at least two nodal processors, and all nodal processors are directly connected to all other nodal processors.

Broadcast Protocols: VIA uses broadcast protocols in order to obtain system wide information. This enables any object or device within VIA to be located and accessed without maintaining a global directory or managing global database information.

Databases: VIA uses a distributed database structure to maintain information about all VoD activities. VIAšs internal databases are dynamically created and synchronized without centralization. Each database is an active object accessed and managed by its own database manager.

Mutual Exclusion: VIA is cognizant of bandwidth used and available on each path and on each storage device. Bandwidth allocation is done on a mutual exclusion basis to avoid over-allocation.

Hierarchical Storage System: VIA uses a hierarchical object storage system capable of providing constant bit rate delivery of media objects contained within its storage structure to an external network. This hierarchical approach exploits the use of inexpensive storage for large static collections of media objects and uses more expensive storage technologies for dynamic on demand delivery of service in response to a revenue generating transaction.