Management of Multimedia on the Internet

In recent years we have witnessed the explosion of multimedia traffic on the Internet. The availability of high bandwidth connections together with the recent advances in high quality video and audio compression techniques have created a fertile ground for the growth of multimedia applications such as interactive video on demand, collaborative distance learning, and remote medical diagnosis. Furthermore, the availability of low bit rate video and audio applications (e.g., H.263 and G.728) and the proliferation of pervasive devices create a new demand for wireless multimedia communication systems. After a decade or more of research and development in multimedia networking, the research community has learned a number of lessons. First, increasing the capacity of the “best effort” networks and services does not provide an effective and permanent solution for offering a guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). Second, the integration of service and network management is a key element in providing end to end service management. Third, management techniques for Internet multimedia services must be scalable and adaptive to guarantee QoS and maintain fairness with optimal network resource.