Page 760 - Cloud computing: From paradigm to operation

4 Video processing and storage

Figure 1 – Cloud storage model for visual surveillance

Cloud storage is a new model for enabling service users to have ubiquitous, convenient and on-demand
network access to a shared pool of configurable storage resources, which can be rapidly provisioned and
released with minimal management effort or service-provider interaction. From a telecommunication
perspective, users do not buy resources but rather purchase cloud services provided by cloud environments.
This can improve the system flexibility and reduce the expenditure of users' systems.
Cloud storage is used for aggregating and managing a particular data set. Figure 1 shows a cloud storage
model for a visual surveillance system. A cloud storage system is a scalable, flexible and reliable video
recording system that can optimize the storage resources for massive video sources. In a cloud storage
system, each component is modularized and allocated dynamically based on actual usage, and data
protection mechanisms are supported to improve system reliability. A cloud storage system enables
convenient and fast access to a wealth of data across distributed and heterogeneous data sources in the
cloud. Furthermore, this data storage system can be easily integrated with cloud computing frameworks
which support efficient intelligent video analysis tasks. For the premises unit (PU) devices, video data can be
uploaded to a cloud storage system by online/offline modes using streaming or other network data transfer
protocols. The data sources can be IP cameras, mobile devices or other media storage units (MSUs), such as
DVRs with networking capability, NVRs, and vehicle DVRs installed on cars. The visual surveillance (VS)
platform can call the cloud storage service through standard interfaces provided by the cloud storage system.
All types of authorized customer units (CUs) or authorized third-party application systems (ASs) can access
the data stored in the cloud storage system.

7 Scenarios
This clause describes typical service scenario examples illustrating the cloud storage in visual surveillance and
deriving its service requirements.

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