Filters: QoS support mechanisms for multipeer communications

  • Authors:

  • N. Yeadon;F. Garcia;D. Hutchison;D. Shepherd

  • Affiliations:

  • Dept. of Comput., Lancaster Univ.;-;-;-

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

The nature of distributed multimedia applications is such that they require multipeer communication support mechanisms. The multimedia traffic needs to be delivered to end-systems, networks, and end-users in a form that they can handle while satisfying the constraints imposed by the multimedia application. Quality-of-service (QoS) mechanisms that can ensure full quality media playout at high-performance workstations, while at the same time providing appropriately filtered lower quality media for playout at other end-systems, are required. Existing multicast support mechanisms are deficient for this purpose, in a heterogeneous environment, because they work on a common denominator premise where the quality delivered depends on the least capable link or node involved in the multicast session. This paper begins by discussing video compression; it proposes and analyzes the use of filtering mechanisms as means of supporting disparate receiver capabilities and QoS requirements. The paper describes the implementation of a number of filtering mechanisms and highlights the communications architecture within which these mechanisms are built. This architecture constitutes a specific network topology and a new protocol family developed within a UNIX-like operating system