Optimal server location in VOD networks

The paper deals with the optimal location of video servers in hierarchical networks delivering interactive video on demand (I-VOD) services. This is in general a dynamic problem, whose solution is sensitive to the uncertainty of the demand evolution. As a global approach would be too complex and also impractical, it is more suitable to identify the significant simplified problems, in which only a subset of the input data and of the decision variables is considered. In particular, several kinds of problem formulation, implying both static and dynamic, deterministic and uncertain demand models, are discussed; numerical analysis is performed to assess their applicability.