Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware, Services, and Applications

Revision with unchanged content. Today, there is a strong trend towards networked multimedia devices. How­ever, common multimedia software architectures are restricted to perform all processing on a single system. Available software infrastructures for distri­buted computing – commonly referred to as middleware – only partly provide the facilities needed for supporting multimedia in distributed and dynamic environments. Approaches from the research community only focus on specific aspects and do not achieve the coverage needed for a full-featured multi­media middleware solution. The Network-Integrated Multimedia Middle­ware (NMM) presented in this book considers the network as an integral part. Despite the inherent heterogeneity of present networking and device techno­logies, the architecture allows to extend control and cooperation to the network and enables the development of distributed multimedia applications that transparently use local and remote components in combination. This middleware is augmented by several middleware services that especially aim at providing additional support for developing complex applications that involve mobile users and devices.