In practice, it makes sense to read at least one buffer ahead since most implementations require a buffer to be completely filled before it can be read. Buffer sharing can yield significant efficiencies in multimedia systems. Buffer sharing can be facilitated by careful interleaving. For example, each stream requires its maximum number of buffers only right after completing its reading period. Non-contiguous streams can be handled better if the data is put into clusters.
Clustering avoids time-consuming seek operations within a stream's reading period.
Although continuity requirements must be met, we are not forced to follow a fixed reading order. In fact, intelligent disk scheduling can be used to reduce the total seek time. This distance is referred to as a scattering parameter. Of course, some disk strategies are impractical to implement, especially if updates are involved, since a complete disk reorganization may be required. On-going or Future Work Buffer allocation strategies for variable compression rates.