Some issues in the implementation of multimedia communication systems

Abstract

Multimedia communications are presented as a major application of broadband digital networks. It is shown that building multimedia communication systems (MMCSs) requires much more than the presence of a high-bandwidth network. In order to study how broadband communication systems will deal with multimedia documents, the structure and characteristics of these documents must be first examined in detail. An overview of the different techniques used to represent multimedia information is given. The design requirements and features of MMCSs and the various issues involved in their implementation are discussed in the light of a research prototype as well as of other experiences reported in the literature. Standardization will play an important role in making MMCSs usable. Efforts in this area are discussed, as well as some other practical problems that need to be solved before multimedia communication becomes the major user of high bandwidth networks.