A cost-based admission control algorithm for handling mixed workloads in multimedia server systems

We propose and analyze a cost-based, resource-reservation admission control algorithm for handling mixed workloads in modern multimedia systems such as a digital library multimedia system that must provide access services to heterogeneous objects stored in the library. The cost-based scheme considered is based on the concept of "rewards" and "penalties" associated with requests of various object types. Instead of admitting object requests until resources are exhausted as a condition for admission control, resources are reserved to requests of different types dynamically based on the cost-based scheme so that the system is capable of maximizing the total reward received by the system in response to workload changes in the environment.