A few weeks ago, I handed in my master’s thesis with the title “A Distributed Architecture for the MediaSearch Framework” after almost six months of work. Here is an abstract of the thesis:
The Fraunhofer SIT MediaSearch Framework is a loosely coupled, event based software system that searches internet platforms such as BitTorrent, Rapidshare or YouTube for media that match specified search criteria, downloads them and examines them for the presence of digital watermarks. Since the amount of media available on the internet is huge, the system is required to be scalable so that large amounts of data can be processed simultaneously.
The scalability of the MediaSearch Framework faces several possible impediments that we will examine in this thesis. Especially noteworthy are the requirements of high network bandwidth for downloads and large computing resources for the retrieval of watermarks. The required scalability might be achieved by distributing the execution of the system to multiple machines to utilize their aggregate bandwidth and computing power.
In this thesis, we examine possible distributed architectures and their implications on the Framework and its scalability. We also discuss impacts on the reliability of the system as a whole and countermeasures against failures of parts of the system. Finally, we propose an implementation of a distributed architecture for the MediaSearch Framework, evaluate its benefits and shortcomings, and show that it is a feasible operation platform for complementing passive copyright protection using digital watermarks with an active search component.
If you wish to receive a full electronic copy of my master’s thesis, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
Tags: Fraunhofer SIT, Master's Thesis, MediaSearch Framework, Watermarking