We present a model for an interactive continuous media server. Such server systems work in an online environment without knowing
future requirements of the customers. We apply competitive analysis to study different scenarios of the design and control
of a server and we give upper and lower bounds for the competitive ratio.
This work was partly supported by the EC ACTS project SICMA (Scalable Interactive Continuous Media Server — Design and Application),
No. AC071, http://www.uni-paderborn.de/cs/sicma
Supported by DFG-Graduiertenkolleg “Parallele Rechnernetzwerke in der Produktionstechnik”, GRK 124/2-96.