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Abstract: In this paper, it is outlined that multimedia - an integrated and interactive presentation of speech, audio, video,
graphics and text, has become a major theme in todays information technology that merges the practices of communications,
computing and information processing into an interdisciplinary fields. The challenge of multimedia communications is to
provide services that integrate text, sound, image and video information and to do it in a way that preserves the case of use
and interactivity. A brief description of elements for multimedia systems is presented. User and network requirements are
discussed together with pocket transfer concept. An overview of multimedia communication standards is given. We also
discuss multimedia transport over ATM and IP networks. The issues concerning multimedia digital subscriber lines are
outlined together with multimedia over wireless, mobile and broadcasting networks as well as digital TV infrastructure for
interactive multimedia services.
Keywords: multimedia, standard, network, communication, system, user, requirement, asynchronous transfer mode,
terminal, Internet, protocol
I. Introduction
The past years have seen an explosion in the use of information from remote computers or servers,
digital media. Industry is making significant investments multimedia information must travel through computer
to deliver digital audio, image and video information to networks. Since the amount of information involved in
consumers and customers. A new infrastructure of digital the transmission of video and audio can be substantial, the
audio, image and video recorders and players, on-line multimedia information must be compressed before it can
services, and electronic commerce is rapidly being be sent through the network in order to reduce the
deployed. At the same time major corporations are communication delay. Constraints, such as limited delay
converting their audio, image and video archives to an and jitter, are used to ensure a reasonable video and audio
electronic form. Digital media offer several distinct effect at the receiving end. Therefore, communication
advantages over analog media: the quality of digital networks are undergoing constant improvements, in order
audio, image and video signals is higher than that of their to provide for multimedia communication capabilities.
analog counterparts. Editing is easy because one can Local area networks are used to connect local computers
access the exact discrete locations that should be changed. and other equipment, and wide area networks and the
Copying is simple with no loss of fidelity. A copy of Internet connect the local area networks together. Better
digital media is identical to the original. Digital audio, standards are constantly being developed, in order to
image and videos are easily transmitted over networked provide a global information superhighway over which
information systems. These advantages have opened up multimedia information will travel.
many new possibilities. Multimedia communications is the field referring to
Multimedia consists the representation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of
of Multimedia data + Set of interactions. Multimedia data machine-processable information expressed in multiple
is informally considered as the collection of three M's: media, such as text, image, graphics, speech, audio, video,
multi-source, multi-type and multi-format data. The animation, handwriting, data files. With the advent of
interactions among the multimedia components consist of high capacity storage devices, powerful and yet
complex relationships without which multimedia would economical computer workstations and high speed
be a simple set of visual, audio and other data. integrated services digital networks, providing a variety of
Multimedia and multimedia communication can be multimedia communications services is becoming not
globally viewed as a hierarchical system. The multimedia only technically but also economically feasible. In
software and applications provide a direct interactive addition, the broadband integrated services digital
environment for users. When a computer requires network (BISDN) has been given special attention as a
next generation communication network infrastructure LMDS Local Multipoint Distribution
which will be capable of transmitting full motion pictures Service
and high speed data at 150 and 600 Mb/s and voice as MAC Medium Access Control
well as data trough out the world [1]. MBS Mobile Broadband System
At first, the concept of multimedia communication MPEG Motion Picture Expert Group
modeling will be described, together with user and MVPD Multichannel Video Program
network requirements, packet transfer concept as well as Distribution
multimedia terminals. The second part deals with NTI Null Timing Information
multimedia communication standards. Finally, we will NTSC National Television System
concentrate on multimedia communications over Committee
networks. Multimedia transfer over ATM networks is PAL Phase Alternating Line
described. This is followed by multimedia over IP PC Personal Computer
networks. Special issues relating to multimedia over PCM Pulse Code Modulation
wireless will be discussed. PVR Packet Voice Receiver
PVT Packet Voice Transmitter
QoS Quality of Service
II. ACRONYMS RFC Request for Comments
SHDSL Single pair High speed DSL
SIF Standard Source Input Format
ADPCM Adaptive Differential Pulse
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
Code Modulation
TR Technical Report
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber
UDP User Datagram Protocol
Line
UMTS Universal Mobile
AE Area Directors
Telecommunication System
ATDM Asynchronous Time-Division
VBR Variable Bit Rate
Multiplex
VoDSL Voice over DSL
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
VPN Virtual Private Network
AV Audiovisual
WAN Wide Area Network
BISDN Broadband Integrated Services
WATM Wireless ATM
Digital Networks
WG Working Group
CATV Cable Television
WLAN Wireless LAN
CC Command and Control
WWW World Wide Web
CLEC Competitive Local Exchange
Carriers
III. MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATION MODEL
CTI Complete Timing Information
Multimedia best suits the human beings complex
DBS Direct Broadcast Satellite
perception, communicating behaviors as well as the way
DDL Description Definition
of acting. Namely, it will not only provide communication
Language
capabilities and information sharing people, irrespective
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
of location and time, but also easy and immediate access
DSM Digital Storage Media
to widely distributed information banks and information
GSM Global System for Mobile
processing centers. Applications in medicine, education,
HDTV High Definition Television
travel, real estate, banking, insurance, administration and
HFC Hybrid Fiber Coax
publishing are emerging at a fast pace. These applications
IAB Internet Architecture Board
are characterized by large multimedia documents that
IEC International Electrotechnical
must be communicated within very short delays.
Commision
Computer-controlled cooperative work, whereby a group
IESG Internet Engineering Steering
of users can jointly view, create, edit and discuss
Group
multimedia documents, is going to be characteristic of
IETF Internet Engineering Task
many transactions [2]. Some glamorous applications on
Force
multimedia processing include: distance learning, virtual
IP Internet Protocol
library access and living books. In distance learning, we
IPN Integrated Packet Network
learn and interact with instructors remotely over a
ISO International Organization for
broadband communication network. Virtual library access
Standardization
means that we instantly have access to all of the published
ISOC Internet Society
material in the world, in its original form and format, and
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts
can browse, display, print and even modify the material
Group
instantaneously. Living books supplement the written
LAN Local Area Network
word and the associated pictures with animations and high-speed data networks between geographically
hyperlink access to supplementary material [3, 4, 5]. distributed local area networks (LANs) high definition
Applications that are enabled or enhanced by video are still picture communication and TV conferencing or
often seen as the primary justification for the development corporate cable TV services. The new paradigm of
of multimedia networks. Trends towards multimedia BISDN application system as a result of the integration of
communication are represented in Fig. 1. multimedia processing by workstations and multimedia
communication by BISDN is shown in Fig. 2.
Much of the work on packet video has considered
A multimedia communication model is strongly
fairly homogenous networking scenario [6]. It would be a
influenced by the manufacturer-dependent solutions for
proper if a single type of video service dominated in the
personal computers and workstations including
networks. However, it is not a valid assumption for the
application software on the one hand and by the
traffic issues. First, video will not constitute a uniform
intelligent network concept on the other [7,8,9,10]. A
service with easily determined behavior and requirements.
layered model for future multimedia communication
Secondly, video will not share resources with streams of
comprises five constituents:
only the same type. This means that multiplexing in the
network should be evaluated for a heterogeneous mix of
traffic types. In business areas, there is a potential need
for various kinds of new communication system, such as
Audio communication
(telephony, sound broadcasting,
Multimedia
communication
Data, text, image Video
communication communication
(data transfer, fax (video telephony,
TV/HDTV
Multimedia
Broadband ISDN integrated
communication
New information
Integration system paradigm
Multimedia
Workstation, PC processing
Processing,
Transport User
storage and
b) interface
retrieval
Users should be able to access their services from Suitable standardizad services and supplementary
any terminal (mobile point of delivery) service supporting multimedia applications
Whereas traditional voice services already have these The requirements of applications regarding the
characteristics, data services over the Internet (including communications services can be divided into traffic and
voice over data) have typically been limited to basic bit functional requirements. The traffic requirements
transport, with no service guarantees, no guaranteed include transmission bandwidth delay and reliability.
availability, and rather fragment service interruptions. They depend on the used kind, number and quality of
With new data service emerging, such as virtual the data streams. The traffic requirements can be
private networks (VPN) and interconnection service satisfied by the use of resource management
between two network service providers, priorities in the mechanisms. They establish a relationship between
data networking domain have to change. In order to transmitted data and resources and ensure that the
resolve and build robust multimedia networks, it is audio-visual data are transmitted in a timely manner.
natural that operators will seek to base their data For this, during the transmission of data, the information
networks on the proven service delivery capability about the resource needs must be available at all nodes
currently deployed in leading-edge voice networks. This participating in the distributed applications, i.e., end
will provide the flexibility, functionality and reliability systems and centers. Hence, resources must be reserved
required to meet the new demands of future users. Also, and state must be created in these nodes, which
it will enable operators to offer the sophisticated basically means that a connection is established. The
services currently provided for voice, in the multimedia functional requirements are multicast transmission and
domain. the ability to define coordinated sets of unidirectional
Multimedia applications have several requirements streams.
with respect to the service offered to them by the Current fixed and mobile networks are built on
communication system. These requirements depend on mature architectures with strong traffic management,
the type of the application and on its usage scenario. For configuration capabilities, service platforms and well
instance, a nonconversational application for the defined points of interconnection between the networks
retrieval of audio-visual data has different needs then a of different operators. A key requirement is that the
conversational application for live audio-visual same high quality network services should exist when
communication (i.e. a conferencing tool). The usage building integrated networking platforms for voice, data
scenario influences the criticality of the demands. and multimedia services [11].
From the network point of view, the most important A future multimedia network must be organized to
requirements of multimedia communications are: support heavy traffic flows, a wide variety of service
High speed and changing bit rates mixes, and different traffic patterns, both in terms of
Several virtual connections over the same access routing the traffic efficiently and in terms of scaling for
Synchronization of different information types overload. The network must adapt quickly to constantly
changing traffic conditions. Reliable security features hardware protocols. Furthermore, packet
and firewalls must be in place for interworking between communication does not require users to allocate a fixed
the many operators that will be competing in the market channel or bandwidth before data transmission. Since
a result of deregulation. users send packets only when necessary, and since
many users can send packets over the same shared
channel, resources in packet networks are utilized more
V. PACKET TRANSFER CONCEPT
efficiently than in circuit switched networks. Video
signals are especially well suited for packet
Todays fiber technology offers a transmission transmission. Images usually contain regions of high
capability that can easily handle high bit rates like those detail and low detail as well as periods of rapid motion
required for video transmission. This leads to the and little motion. Thus, effective video coders should be
development of networks, which integrate all types of able to produce data streams with variable bit rates that
information services. By basing such a network on change with local characteristics [15]. Packet networks
packet switching, the services (video, voice and data) can carry variable bit rate (VBR) signals directly. No
can be dealt with in a common format. Packet switching buffering or rate control feedback is necessary at the
is more flexible than circuit switching in that it can transmitter.
emulate the latter while vastly different bit rates can be The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks
multiplexed together. In addition, the networks are based on virtual circuit switching: all fixed size
statistically multiplexing of variable rate services may packets of a circuit have the fixed route [16]. The tasks
yield a higher utilization of the channel capacity than of packet video transfer over asynchronous time
what is obtainable with fixed capacity allocation. Many division multiplexed network or Internet is to code and
years ago, most of these arguments were verified in a transfer digital video signal under quality contrains as it
number of projects [10,12,13,14] is shown in Fig. 4. In Internet protocol (IP) networks the
Compared to circuit switching, packet switching packets are of variable length and there is no pre-
offers dynamic allocation of bandwidths and switching established route, so they may arrive out of order at
resources as well as the elimination of channel structure. destination. During transfers in ATM and IP networks,
Packet networks allow integrated service transport. delay and some packet loss are unavoidable [18,19].
They can carry voice, video and data using the same
Users
- transformation - data structuring routing - resynchronization - dequantization
- quantization - overhead (FEC) - error detection - entropy decoding
- entropy coding - retransmission - loss detection - inv. transformation
- bit rate control - error correction - loss concealment
- erasure correction - postprocessing
The generic functions of network in packet transfer probabilistic guarantees a network must know its
from source to user are routing and multiplexing. current flow of traffic, based on already accepted
Routing provides connectivity and does not depend on connections or measurements of actual network load.
information type used in the transfer. Multiplexing New connections are allowed if they can be guaranteed
determines much of the transfer quality in the network the quality they request and their characteristics do not
and is highly dependent of the traffic characteristics, the risk the quality of already accepted connections or
quality requirements and users applications. measurements of actual network load.
Statistical multiplexing with quality guarantees is the
best choice for video transfer [20]. In order to offer
VI. MULTIMEDIA TERMINALS configurations and using ATM principle. This could make
Every major advance in networking has been preceded the integration of all information types easier and provide
by an advance in the user interface that has precipitated the necessary high bit rates. This concept supports the
the acceptance and growth of the networking advance. extension of a PC or workstation into an ATM oriented
For example, the invention of the telephone preceded the desk area network, comprising cameras, printers and other
growth of switch networks, the invention of the television special purpose system or subsystems offering interfaces
preceded the growth of TV networks and cable television to ATM networks.
(CATV), the radio telephone let to the cellular network
the PC let to the LAN/WAN network and the browser led
to the growth of the Internet and World Wide Web VII. MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATION
(WWW). For the multimedia, there need to be new smart STANDARDS
terminals created in order to facilitate the display, access, In a broad sense, multimedia is assumed to be a
indexing, browsing and searching of multimedia content general framework for interaction with information
in a convenient and easy-to-use maner. available from different sources. With the digital
Multimedia itself denotes the integrated manipulation revolution, it became possible to further exploit a well-
of at least some information represented as continuous known concept: the more that is known about the content,
media data, as well as some information encoded as the better can be its representation, processing, etc., in
discrete media data (text and graphics). Here, we have the terms of efficiency and allowed functionalities.
act of capturing, processing, communicating, presenting
A multimedia standard is expected to provide support
and/or storage.
for a large number of applications. These applications
Multimedia terminals are needed to retrieve, analyze,
store and broadcast the new forms of written, sound and translate into specific set of requirements which may be
very different from one another. One theme common to
visual content. The architecture of these systems can be
most applications is the need for supporting interactivity
defined according to different approaches based on
telecommunications data processing and audiovisual with different kinds of data. Communications mean
standards but the production of standards for multimedia
technology. By incorporating voice, data as well as still
communications is be set by the problem that the many
and moving pictures into their communications, business
has increasingly sophisticated functions to improve access industries having a stake in it have radically different
to distributed resources and save valuable time in the approaches to standardization. Standards play a major role
in the multimedia revolution because they provide
decision process. Remote dialogue, discussion,
interoperability between hardware and software provided
information production, maintenance and inspection are
now possible from the new multimedia systems and at by multiple vendors.
operating costs that are continuing to fall. Existing The success of the Moving Picture Experts Group
solutions offer two types of terminal: multifunction office (MPEG) [21] is based on a number of concurrent
or computer workstations and dedicated equipment such elements. MPEG appeared at a time when coding
as enhanced telephone terminals, videophones or shared algorithms of audio and video were reaching asymptotic
teleconferencing systems. performance. By relying the support in terms of technical
Multimedia communication requires powerful expertise, of all industries interested in digital audio and
terminals: upgraded personal computers (PCs), desktop video applications, MPEG contributed to the practical
workstations or video computers. Todays terminals are acceptance of the audio-visual representation layer,
enhanced for broadband multimedia applications, for independent of the delivery system. A last element of
example PCs by the addition of telecommunication and success has been the focus on the decoder instead of the
video/audio capabilities and TV receivers by the addition traditional encoder-decoder approach. Therefore, MPEG
of intelligence and interactivity. At the same time, high could provide the standard solution to the major players
definition television (HDTV) is in development leading who were considering the use of digital coding of audio
the way towards all digital TV. HDTV is a technology and video for innovative mass-market products and allow
driver for memories, image/video processors and flat a faster achievement of a critical mass than would have
screens [20]. been possible without it. The different industries have
Multimedia terminal equipment also comprises suitable been diverging, but multimedia communications
cameras, scanners and printers, mass storage. Special necessarily need some convergence zone that can only be
equipment is necessary for editing multimedia achieved by standardization in key areas. Putting every
information, i.e., the creation, alternation and deletion of stake holder together and producing communication
content and structures. Three-dimensional (3D) display standards accepted by all is a big task. After the great
devices and speech recognition system will further success of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 standards which
facilitate faster and easier human interaction with opened the digital frontiers to audiovisual information and
multimedia applications or editors. allowed the deployment of high performance services, the
PCs and workstation architecture are considered for the MPEG-4 is striking again with the emerging MPEG-4
interconnection of the systems components, based on star standard. The MPEG-4 standard is the acknowledgement
by MPEG, the leading standardization body in Version 2). H.263+ contains approximately 12 new
audiovisual representation technology, that the data features that do not exist in H.263. These include new
models underpinning MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 were limited coding modes that improve compression efficiency,
and could not fulfill new needs of emerging multimedia support for scalable bit streams, several new features to
applications, such as hyperlinking, interaction and natural support packet networks and error-prone environments,
and synthetic data integration. MPEG-4 is the answer to added functionality, and support for a variety of video
the requirements coming from the new ways in which formats [7].
audio-visual information is nowadays produced, delivered
and consumed. To reach this target, MPEG-4 follows an
object based representation approach where an audio- A. MPEG-1 (CODING OF MOVING PICTURES
visual scene is coded as a composition of objects, natural AND ASSOCIATED AUDIO)
as well as synthetic, providing the first powerful hybrid
playground. The objective of MPEG-4 is thus to provide The first standard developed by the group, nicknamed
an audiovisual representation standard supporting, new MPEG-1, was the coding of the combined audio-visual
ways of communication access, and interaction with signal at a bit rate around 1.5 Mbit/s. This was motivated
digital audiovisual data, and offering a common technical by the prospect that was becoming apparent in 1988 to
solution to various services. It also extends to layered store video signals on a compact disc with a quality
coding (scalabilities), multiview (stereoscopic video), comparative to VHS cassettes. In 1988, coding of video at
shape/texture/motion coding of objects, and animation. Its such low bit rates had become possible thanks to decades
role extends to the Internet, Web TV, large databases of research in video coding algorithms. These algorithms
(storage, retrieval and transmission), and mobile networks however, had to be applied to subsampled pictures - a
[22]. MPEG-4 Version 1 became an international standard single field from a frame and only half of the samples in a
in February 1999, and Version 2 in November 1999. line - to show their effectiveness. Also, coding of audio,
Version 2 with extended functionalities is backward as separate from speech, allowed reduction by 1/6 of the
compatible with Version 1. PCM bitrate, typically 256 Kbit/s for a stereo source, with
Multimedia databases on the market today allow virtual transparency. Encoded audio and video streams,
searching for pictures using characteristics such as color, with the constraint of having a common time base, were
texture, and information about the shape of objects in the combined into a single stream by the MPEG system layer.
picture. MPEG started a new work item to provide a As previously indicated, MPEG-1 formally known as
solution to the problem described earlier. One of the ISO/IEC 11172 is standardized in five parts. The first
members of MPEG family (called "Multimedia Content three parts as Systems, Video and Audio. Two more parts
Description Interface") is MPEG-7 [23, 24, 25]. It extends complete the suite of MPEG-1 standards. Conformance
the limited current search capabilities to include more Testing, which specifies the methodology for verifying
information types, such as video, image, audio, graphics claims of conformance to the standard by manufacturers
and animation. In other words, MPEG-7 specifies a of equipment and producers of bitstreams, and Software
standardized description of various types of multimedia Simulation, a full C-language implementation of the
information. This description is associated with the MPEG-1 standard (encoder and decoder) [26].
content itself, to allow fast and efficient searching for
multimedia that is of interest to users. The description can
be attached to any kind of multimedia material, no matter B. MPEG-2 (GENERIC CODING OF MOVING
what the format of the description is. Stored material that PICTURES AND ASSOCIATED AUDIO)
has this information attached to it can be indexed,
searched, and retrieved. The MPEG-2 family of standards outline the
compression technologies and bit stream syntax that
In the original ITU-T work plan, the goal was to define enable transmission of audio and video in broadband
a "near-term" recommendation in 1996, followed by a networks. These standards also describe the aspects
"long-term" recommendation several years later. The needed to multiplex programs, enable clock
near-term recommendation is referred as H.263. The synchronization and setup logical network links carrying
long-term recommendation H.26L (previously called video and audio content. MPEG-2 is, in many cases,
H.263L) is scheduled for standardization in the year 2002 associated only with video compression, which is
and may adopt a completely new compression algorithm. certainly one of the most important parts of its
After H.263 was completed, it became apparent there functionality [27, 28, 29, 30]. In total, there are eight
were incremental changes that could be made to H.263 different parts of the MPEG-2, covering the different
that could visibly improve its compression performance. aspects of digital video and audio delivery and
Thus, it was decided in 1996 that a revision to H.263 representation [31]. Table 2 contains the different MPEG-
would be created that incorporated these incremental 2 parts [32].
improvements. This is H.263 "plus" with several new
features. Hence, the name H.263+ (now called H.263
Table 2 Parts of the MPEG-2 standards
ISO/IEC 13818 MPEG-2 Description
13818-1 Systems
13818-2 Video
13818-3 Audio
13818-4 Conpliance
13818-5 Software Simulation
13818-6 Digital Storage Media - Command and Control (DSM-CC)
13818-9 Real-time Interface for System Decoders
13818-10 DSM Reference Script Format
Basically MPEG-2 can be seen as a superset of the thus prediction modes were developed to support efficient
MPEG-1 coding standard and was designed to be coding of interlaced video. In addition scalable video
backward compatible to MPEG-1 - every MPEG-2 coding extensions were introduced to provide additional
compatible decoder can decode a valid MPEG-1 bit functionalities, such as embedded coding of digital TV
stream. Many video coding algorithms were integrated and HDTV, and graceful quality degradation in the
into a single syntax to meet the diverse applications presence of transmission errors.
requirements. New coding features were added by For comparison, typical MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 coding
MPEG-2 to achieve sufficient functionality and quality, parameters are shown in Table 3 [33].
Table 3 MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 coding parameters
MPEG-1 MPEG-2
Standardized 1992 1994
Main application Digital video on CD-ROM Digital TV (and HDTV)
Spatial resolution SIF format (1/4 TV) 288x360pixels TV (4xTV) 576x720 (1152x1440)
Temporal resolution 25/30 frames/s 50/60 fields/s (100/120 fields/s)
Bit rate 1.5 Mbit/s 4 Mbit/s (20 Mbit/s)
Quality comparable to VHS Comparable to NTSC/PAL for TV
Compression ratio over PCM 20-30 30-40
speech time
PVT 1 2 3 4 5
PVR 1 2 3 4 5
reconstructed
speech
...
SOURCE SEGMENT SEGMENT HEADER NETWORK
errors, excessively delayed in the network, etc.) the
CODER
CLASS i
receiver must first detect the loss by inspecting sequence
numbers of those packets which have been received. It
must further make a determination of the class of each
ASSIGN DELIVERY
PRIORITY
lost packet, so that the appropriate regeneration model can
be applied using previous header and sample history [57].
Figure 8. Transmitter subsystem
node as well as at each multiplexed network access point. IN PACKET SAMPLES SAMPLES BUFFER
The receiver decodes the samples in speech packets Figure 10. Receiver subsystem
delivered to it based on the classification and coding
parameters contained in the end-to-end header. It also
determines the appropriate time to play them out. In sumary, the advantages gained by taking a total
Receiver subsystem is shown in Fig. 10. The receiver system approach to integrated packet network are as
synchronization problem requires only packet sequence follows:
numbers. Global synchronization is administratively
difficult and relatively timestamps must be modified at A powerful overload control mechanism is provided.
each packet multiplexer, requiring additional per-packet The structure of speech is effectively exploited.
processing [56]. Potential speech detector impairments,
Extremely simple per-packet processing for overload operations like scheduling and buffer management to
control is allowed. provide service guarantees. Delay and some loss is
Only one packet per speech segment is required. inevitable during transfers across both ATM and IP
Receiver speech synchronization is simplified. networks. The delay is chiefly caused by propagation and
Reduced per-packet error processing at packet queuing. The queuing delay depends on the dynamic load
multiplexers is possible. variations on the links and must be equalized before video
can be reconstructed. Bit errors can occur in the optics
C. PACKET VIDEO and electronics of the physical layer through thermal and
impulsive noise. Loss of information is mainly caused by
Asynchronous transfer of video which often is referred multiplexing overload of such magnitude and duration
to as "packet video" can be defined as the transfer of that buffers in the nodes overflow.
video signals over asynchronously time-division
multiplex (ATDM) networks, such as IP and ATM. The
video may be transferred for instantaneous viewing or for D. MULTIMEDIA TRANSPORT OVER ATM
subsequent storage for replay at a later time. The former NETWORKS
case has requirements on pacing so that the received
video data can be displayed in a perceptually continuos As previously stated, multimedia itself denotes the
sequence. The latter case can be seen as a large data integrated manipulation of at least some information
transfer with no inherent time-constraints. In addition to represented as continuos media data, as well as some
the requirement on pacing, there may also be bounds on information encoded as discrete media data (text and
the maximal transfer delay from camera to monitor if the graphics). Multimedia communication deals with the
video is a part of an interactive conversation or transfer, protocols, services, and mechanisms of discrete
conference. These limits are set by human perception and media data and continuos media data (audio, video)
determine when the delay starts to the information in/over digital networks. Such communication requires
exchange. Parts of the signal may be lost or corrupted by that all involved components be capable of handling a
errors during the transfer. This will reduce the quality of well-defined quality of services (QoS). The most
the reconstructed video and if the degradation is serious important QoS parameters are required capacities of the
enough, it may cause the viewer to reject the service. involved resources, compliance to end-to-end delay and
Thus, the general topics of packet video is to code and jitter as timing restrictions, and restriction of the loss
asynchronously transfer video signals under quality characteristics. A protocol designed to reserve capacity
constraints. for continuous media data, transmitted in conjunction
The synchronous transfer mode combines the circuit with the discrete media data over, for example an
switched routing of telephony networks with the asynchronous transfer mode - local area network (ATM-
asynchronous multiplexing of packet switching. This is LAN) is certainly a multimedia communication issue
accomplished by establishing a connection (fixed route) [59]. The success of ATM for multimedia
through the network before accepting any traffic. The communications depends on the successful
information is then sent in 53-octet long cells. The standardization of its signaling mechanisms, its ability to
switches route cells according to address information attract the development of the native ATM applications,
contained in each cell's 5-octet header. Traffic on a and the integration of the ATM with other
particular link consists of randomly interleaved cells communications systems. The integration of ATM into
belonging to different calls. The network guarantees that the Internet world is under investigation. If there will be
all cells of a call follow the same route and hence, get ATM applications such as video on demand, then there is
delivered in the same order as sent. The intention is that also the need for a "side-by-side" integration of ATM and
ATM networks should be able to guarantee the quality of Internet protocols. The success of wireless ATM
service in terms of cell loss and maximum delay, as well (WATM) relies on the success of ATM/BISDN in wired
as maximum delay variations [58]. networks. When ATM networks become a standard in the
wired area, the success of WATM will be realized.
The internet protocol differs in two major respects
from ATM: there is no pre-established route and the
packets are of variable length (up to 65535 octets). IP E. VIDEO OVER WIRELESS ATM NETWORKS
does not give any guarantees on the delivery of the Due to the success of ATM on wired networks, wireless
packets and they may even arrive out of order if the ATM (WATM) has become the direct result of the ATM
routing decision is changed during the session. These "anywhere" movement. WATM can be viewed as a solution
issues will be addressed by the introduction of IPng in for next-generation personal communication networks, or a
conjunction with the resource reservation protocol RSVP. wireless extension of the BISDN networks. There has been a
IPng often called Internet Protocol (version 6), packets great deal of interest recently in the area of wireless
contain a 24-bit flow identifier in addition to the source networking. Issues such as bit error rates and cell loss rates
and destination addresses which can be used in routers for are even more important when transmitting video over a
wireless network. A very high performance wireless local F. MULTIMEDIA OVER IP NETWORKS
area network which operates in the 60 GHz millimeter wave
band can experience cell loss rates of 10-4 to 10-2 . To provide Multimedia has become a major theme in today's
adequate picture quality to the user, some form of error information technology that merges the practices of
correction or concealment must be employed. One option is communications, computing, and information processing
to use the MPEG-2 error resilience techniques and to modify into an interdisciplinary field. In this Internet era, IP-
the MPEG-2 standard slightly when it is used over wireless based data networks have emerged as the most important
ATM networks. This technique is known as macroblock infrastructure, reaching millions of people anytime,
resynchronization [60]. In macroblock resynchronization the anywhere. They serve as an enabling technology that
first macroblock in every ATM cell is coded absolutely creates a whole new class of applications to enhance
rather then differentially. This allows for resynchronization productivity, reduce costs, and increase business agility.
of the video stream much more often than would be possible Anticipating that multimedia over IP will be one of the
if resynchronization could only take place at the slice level. It major driving forces behind the emerging broadband
would be relatively simple to incorporate this method with communications of the 21st century, we address the
the existing MPEG-2 coding standard by adding an challenges facing the delivery of multimedia applications
interworking adapter at the boundary between the fixed and over IP in a cost effective, ubiquitous, and quality-
wireless network [61]. A second proposal for improving guaranteed manner.
error resilience in wireless network is to use forward error
correction (FEC) methods. In addition, improved
performance can be achieved by using a two layer scalable G. VIDEO TRANSMISSION OVER IP NETWORKS
MPEG-2 coding scheme rather than one layer [62]. The problem of sending video over IP has essentialy
two main components: video data compression and design
of communication protocols, as illustrated in Fig. 11 [63].
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) offers The explosion of technological advancements and the
asymmetric rates of transfer of data to and from the success of the second-generation digital cellular systems
Internet. The uplink rates can go up to 768 Kbit/s and (e.g., Global System for Mobile - GSM and Personal
down links rates are 6-8 Mbit/s, depending on the length Digital Cellular - PDC) have established wireless
and condition of the local loop - the wiring between the communications as indispensable in modern life. Because
customer's premises and the telco central office. of the low-cost and low-consumption characteristics of
emerging wireless products targeted at low to medium bit
Cable companies bring analog TV signals over optical
rate services, these products are expected to play an
filters to their neighborhood distribution points, a head-
important role in wireless communications in the next few
ends, whence the signals are distributed to residences by
years. Wireless in multimedia communications (e.g.,
coaxial cables. The combination of fiber and coaxial
audiovisual telephony and videoconferencing) require
cable, which can carry high-speed data as well as TV
medium to high bit rate channels (64 kbps to 2Mbps per
signals, is known as hybrid fiber coax (HFC). Each
user). Therefore, for these applications, it will be
distribution point typically serves 200-500 residences.
necessary to have broadband wireless networks that
The extent of the network of a cable TV operator is
support bit rates in excess of 2 Mbps per radio channel,
where each radio channel could be shared by multiple Even with scalable and multiple description based
users or sessions. In addition, these services have to be source coding schemes, there will still be lost data on
provided with some quality of service (QoS) guarantees wireless systems. Error recovery and concealment at the
over their respective, error-prone wireless connections. In receiver is therefore an important topic and has received
order to archive these goals, one has to address the some attention again primarily for video. These error
following key issues: concealment techniques rely to a large extent on knowing
haw to increase the capacity of wireless channels the underlying source compression technique and
how to provide QoS in a cost-effective way exploiting some of the tools that are used therein [68].
how to combat the wireless channel impairments. Most of the wireless systems today also support
In addition to the continuing interest in wireless mobility. The velocity associated with mobility has been
audiovisual communication applications mentioned, a one of the key parameters that affect system design. For
great deal of interest has emerged in higher end wireless this reason, many of the approaches to solving channel
multimedia services. However, current wireless networks, related problems associated with mobility have been
which are primarily low bit rate narrow band systems developed for specific classes of mobile systems -
targeted for voice or data, are inadequate for supporting pedestrian (velocity of a few meters/sec), vehicular
audiovisual communication applications or high-end (velocities of about 100 meters/sec), and high-speed
multimedia services. (velocities of hundreds of kilometers/sec). Mobility also
affects routing and addressing, which have received a
Most multimedia services tend to be real-time in nature, significant amount of attention.
i.e., the data being transported need to get to the destination
by a certain time in order to be useful. This implies the need Depending on its applications, there are two distinct
to develop techniques for call admission, bandwidth approaches to the development of wireless broadband
allocation and the handling of real time variable rate streams. communication system (WBCS): wireless local area
These are problems that apply to wired networks as well and network (WLAN) and mobile broadband system (MBS).
are not, therefore unique to wireless multimedia Although the core network dilemma is still going strong
communication systems. between IP and ATM for broadband multimedia services,
almost all of the WBCS technology demonstrations are
The two major protocol-related problems in wireless based on ATM technology. ATM as a broadband
multimedia concern medium access and quality of infrastructure has been designed for multimedia
service. Wireless systems are inherently multiple medium communications to accommodate a variety of data rates,
access in nature and therefore need to have a reliable QoS requirements, and connection and connectionless
medium access control (MAC layer that also supports paradigms. It is quite natural to assume a combination of
QoS [66]. wireless and ATM-based services at the consumer end of
Audio, video and graphics need to be compressed a wired network. In order to deliver multimedia traffic
before transport over a bandwidth constrained wireless over broadband wireless networks, we need to have
channel. Given the emphasis on mobile wireless systems sufficient bandwidth and be able to support service
in the past, the media element that has received the most specific QoS requirements concerning delay, delay
attention in the context of wireless multimedia is speech variation, and packet loss on a per-connection basis
[67]. This is natural because the most widely deployed [69,70].
wireless multimedia system today is cellular telephony, The radio physical layer is essentially the soul of any
which is a fairly limited bandwidth system. There has also wireless network. Ideally, one wants to find a radio
been a great deal of interest in wireless video given the physical layer technology that is spectrum efficient,
increased bandwidth capabilities of universal mobile minimizes the radio overhead and is robust in both indoor
telecommunications systems (UMTS). The two video and outdoor environments. Because of various channel
compression standards that are most relevant to these impairments, it is very hard to get an optimal radio
systems area MPEG-4 and H.263, both of which have physical layer.
been evaluated for uses in GSM systems. Because of
unreliable nature of wireless networks, it has become The wireless broadband air interface will demand a
important to build source coding schemes that are robust relatively large frequency band to support bit rates in
to channel errors. Scalable compression schemes that excess of 2 Mbps. This type of allocation is hard to find
offer graceful degradation with loss of data have became below 3 GHz and the availability of bandwidth becomes
popular. easier on higher frequencies, but at the cost of complex
and expensive techniques. Because at higher frequencies
Audio and graphics are two source elements that have the path loss is greater, line of sight operation becomes
not received extensive research in the context of wireless important and wall penetration becomes a challenge for
systems. There has, however, been some work on hand- WANLs.
writing coding [66].
IX. CONCLUDING REMARKS have to be applied to ensure that requests are accepted
only if sufficient network resources are available.
Research on telecommunication network is focused on Moreover, service-specific policing actions have to be
post ISDN architectures and capabilities such as an employed within the network to ensure that
integrated packet network and broadband ISDN. The nonconforming data flows do not affect the QoS
economics and flexibility of integrated networks make commitments for already active data flows. One generic
them very attractive, and packet network architectures framework that addresses both the video coding and
have the potential for realizing these advantages. networking challenges associated with Internet video is
However, the effective integration of speech and other scalability. Any scalable Internet video coding solution
signals such as graphics, image and video into an has to enable a very simple and flexible streaming
integrated packet network (IPN) can rearrange network framework. The fine-grained scalable framework strikes a
design priorities. Although processing speeds will good balance between coding efficiency ad scalability
continue to increase, it will also be necessary to minimize while maintaining a very flexible and simple video coding
the nodal per-packet processing requirements imposed by structure.
the network design. This is a motivation for new With the advent of common uses of the Internet, the
switching concepts like fast packet switching and ATM. demands for real-time and low-rate voice over IP
Data signals must generally be received error free in order applications are growing rapidly. Since the delivery of
to be useful, but the inherent structure of speech and packets is not guaranteed in the IP networks, it is
image signals and the way in which they are perceived necessary to deal with the audible artifacts, which are
allows for some loss of information without significant caused by burst packet losses. Packet loss degrades the
quality impairment. This presents the possibility of speech quality of the analysis-by-synthesis coders
purposely discarding limited information to achieve some seriously since the loss parameters not only affect the
other goal, such as the control temporary congestion. current speech frame, but also produce the so-called error
Multimedia communication standards have to rely on propagation problem resulting from corrupted filter
compromises between what is theretically possible and memory. This packet loss problem can be solved by using
what is technologically feasible. Standards can only be different model parameters.
successful in the market place if the cost performance Digital Subscriber line (DSL) technology offers
ratio is well balanced. This is specifically true in the field unprecedented scalability for interactive video services. It
of audio/video coding where a large variety of innovative is the basis for the point-to-point architecture that is the
coding algorithms exist, but may be too complex for key to providing a combination of interactive video and
implementation. broadcast services. The implementation of video services
Streaming video over the Internet faces many is a high priority for telecom providers. Delivering voice
technological as well as business challenges, and new services over digital subscriber line offers a lucrative
codecs, protocols, players and subsystems are developed opportunity for both established and emerging services.
to address them. Since its introduction in early 1990s, the Data broadcasting in support of multimedia
concept of streaming media has experienced a dramatic applications, requires efficient use of bandwidth resources
growth and transformation from a novel technology into in order to maximize the availability of playout content.
one of the mainstream manners in which people From the data delivery point of view, the digital TV
experience the Internet today. The concept of streaming infrastructure provides a broadband digital distribution
media comes at a time when basic multimedia network, data transport protocols and digital terminals on
technologies have already established themselves on the user premises.
desktop PCs. Streaming media is a technology that
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