Research Report on

Classes of Multimedia Application

Submitted to:

Department of Advanced Internetworking

National College of Computer Studies

Submitted By

Laxmi Manandhar
NCCSBIM825
BIM 5th semester “B”
March, 2019
 Acknowledgement

The research report is prepared for the fulfilment of the requirement of BIM 5th
semester with prescribed rules and regulations of TU Board. I acknowledge special thanks to
our Advanced Internetworking teacher, Mr. Sudarsan Nepal for giving us opportunity to
perform this research and prepare report on Classes of Multimedia Application. His
guidance, comments and recommendations helped us to conduct this research.

I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to the mentor for giving me
such attention and time. I would like to express my gratitude towards our college National
College of Computer Studies (NCCS) for their kind co-operation and encouragement which
has helped me in completion of this report. My thanks and appreciations also go to my
colleagues in developing the report and people who have willingly helped me out with their
abilities. Without them, this study wouldn’t have got the shape it has.

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Table of Content

s
Chapter 1. Multimedia Classes..................................................................................................1
1.1. Streaming Stored Audio/Video................................................................................1

1.1.1. Components of Streaming Stored Audio/Video..................................................2

1.1.2. Merits of Streaming Media..................................................................................3

1.1.3. Demerits of Streaming Media..............................................................................3

1.2. Streaming Live Audio/Video...................................................................................4

1.2.1. Benefits of Live Streaming..................................................................................5

1.3. Real-time Interactive Audio/Video..........................................................................7

1.3.1. Delays...................................................................................................................7
Chapter 2. Hurdles for Multimedia in the Internet.....................................................................9
Chapter 3. Servers....................................................................................................................11
3.1. Types of Servers........................................................................................................11

3.2. Delivering Data..........................................................................................................15

Chapter 4. Conclusion..............................................................................................................16
Chapter 5. References..............................................................................................................17
List of Figures
Figure 1 Streaming Stored Media from YouTube.....................................................................1
Figure 2 Livestreaming TV........................................................................................................4
Figure 3 Streaming Live Videos from Online Site....................................................................4
Figure 4 Hamro Patro Live Radio Streaming............................................................................5
Figure 5 Timely Engagement.....................................................................................................6
Figure 6 NetMeeting Example...................................................................................................7
Figure 7 Delivered Without and With Delay.............................................................................7
Figure 8 Multimedia Classes......................................................................................................8
Figure 9 Real-time Interactivity.................................................................................................9
Figure 10 Real-time Video Chat..............................................................................................10
Figure 11 Differences Between Streaming and Web Server...................................................12
Figure 12 Differences Between Streaming and Web Server Cond..........................................13
Figure 13 Working of Web Server and Streaming Server.......................................................14
Figure 14 Example of working of Streaming Server...............................................................14
Figure 15 Delivering Data........................................................................................................15
Figure 16 An example of Microsoft server comparison..........................................................15
Chapter 1. Multimedia Classes
1.1. Streaming Stored Audio/Video
In this class of applications, clients request on-demand compressed audio or video
files, which are stored on servers. For audio, these files can contain a professor's lectures,
rock songs, symphonies, archives of famous radio broadcasts, as well as historical archival
recordings. For video, these files can contain video of professors' lectures, full-length movies,
pre-recorded television shows, documentaries, video archives of historical events, video
recordings of sporting events, cartoons and music video clips. At any time, a client machine
can request an audio/video file from a server.

In most of the existing stored audio/video applications, after a delay of a few seconds
the client begins to playback the audio file while
it continues to receive the file from the server.
The feature of playing back audio or video while
the file is being received is called streaming.
Many of the existing products also provide for
user interactivity, e.g., pause/resume and temporal
jumps to the future and past of the audio file.
Figure 1 Streaming Stored Media from YouTube

The delay from when a user makes a

request (e.g., request to hear an audio file or skip two-minutes forward) until the action
manifests itself at the user host (e.g., user begins to hear audio file) should be on the order of
1 to 10 seconds for acceptable responsiveness. Requirements for packet delay and jitter are
not as stringent as those for real-time applications such as Internet telephony and real-time
video conferencing (see below). There are many streaming products for stored audio/video,
including RealPlayer from RealNetworks and NetShow from Microsoft.

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1.1.1. Components of Streaming Stored Audio/Video
1.1.1.1. Streaming
In most stored audio/video applications, a client begins playout of the audio/video a
few seconds after it begins receiving the file from the server. This means that the client
will be playing out audio/video from one location in the file while it is receiving later
parts of the file from the server. This technique, known as streaming, avoids having to
download the entire file (and incurring a potentially long delay) before beginning
playout. There are many streaming multimedia products, including RealPlayer from
RealNetworks and Microsoft’s Windows Media [Microsoft Windows Media 2000].
There are also applications such as Napster [Napster 2000], however, that require an
entire audio file to be downloaded before playout begins.

1.1.1.2. Stored
The multimedia content has been pre-recorded and is stored at the server. As a result,
a user may pause, rewind, fast-forward or index through the multimedia content. The
time from when a client makes such a request until the action manifests itself at the
client should be on the order of 1 to 10 seconds for acceptable responsiveness.

1.1.1.3. Continuous Playout

Once playout of the multimedia begins, it should proceed according to the original
timing of the recording. This places critical delay constraints on data delivery. Data must
be received from the server in time for its playout at the client; otherwise, it is
considered useless. In Section 6.3, we’ll consider the consequences of this requirement
in detail. The end-to-end delay constraints for streaming, stored media are typically less
stringent than those for live, interactive applications such as Internet telephony and video
conferencing.

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1.1.2. Merits of Streaming Media
1. Instant playback

In the early days of the Internet, if a webmaster wanted to add videos to his website he
had to post it as a link. Web site visitors then had to download the file completely before
playing it back. This all changed with streaming video. Content is served in a way that
allows files to play almost immediately after the file begins to download. Special streaming
media servers also allow viewers to jump forward and backward through a video file.

2. Piracy protection

Allowing your Web site visitors to download video files, especially copyrighted
material, makes it much easier for your content to be pirated. Your downloaded video files
could be shared with others through file-sharing networks and other methods. Streaming
video technology is harder to copy and prevents users from saving a copy to their computer
if you don't want them to. While it's not perfect, it may give you better peace of mind about
distributing your content online.

1.1.3. Demerits of Streaming Media

1. Bandwidth use
Streaming videos require sufficient bandwidth to play, especially at higher quality.
For example, Netflix's streaming service requires an Internet speed of at least 5 Mbps for
HD quality, 7 Mbps for "Super HD" quality, and 12 Mbps for 3D streaming. While these
speeds are generally available with most cable/DSL connections, those with slower
connections may experience issues with playback and/or poor quality, since some services
will reduce video quality in order to ensure uninterrupted playback.

2. Online only
While the advantage of giving your users instant playback and yourself protection
from content pirates might be attractive, these can also work against you as streaming video
works only when there is an available Internet connection. If the viewer's Internet
connection is cut during playback or they need to watch your content offline, they will be
out of luck. In these cases, consider offering the user an option to both stream and
download the video file, and using copy protection to prevent piracy.

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 1.2. Streaming Live Audio/Video
This class of application is similar to traditional
broadcast radio and television, except that
transmission takes place over the Internet. These
applications allow a user to receive a live radio or
television transmission emitted from any corner of
the world. (For example, one of the authors of this
book often listens to his favourite Philadelphia radio
stations from his home in France. The other author
regularly listened to live broadcasts of his
university’s beloved basketball team while he was
living in France for a year.) Since streaming live
audio/video is not stored, a client cannot fast
forward through the media. However, with local
storage of received data, other interactive operations
such as pausing and rewinding though live
Figure 2 Livestreaming TV
multimedia transmissions are possible in some
applications. Live, broadcast-like applications often
have many clients who are receiving the same audio/video program.

Distribution of live audio/ video to many receivers can be efficiently accomplished using
Figure 3 Streaming Live Videos from Online Site
the multicasting techniques. At the time of the writing of
this book, however, this type of distribution is more
often accomplished through multiple separate unicast
streams. As with streaming stored multimedia,
continuous playout is required, although the timing
constraints are less stringent than for live interactive
applications. Delays of up to tens of seconds from when
the user requests the delivery/playout of a live
transmission to when playout begins can be tolerated.

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1.2.1. Benefits of Live Streaming
Live streaming hasn’t been with us for too long, but it’s quickly gaining traction and
attention of those who are always on a lookout for new and innovative ways of delivering
content. With the help of early adopters like Gary Vaynerchuk and other high-profile
influencers, the industry is projected to skyrocket in the coming years, flipping the whole
content production and consumption process on its head.

1. Users Consume Content On Your Time, Not On Their Time

The biggest and the most powerful advantage of live streaming is that viewers consume
content on your time, and not on their time. This means that you are only engaging with
people who care about you, your brand, and people that find your content extremely useful.
You are automatically targeting content at the people who are more likely to convert and
follow you further. No other content marketing channel is capable of doing what live
streaming does.

2. It’s Not Yet Overcrowded

History repeats itself. Like with any other digital marketing

channel, live streaming will become over-populated very
quickly. Although it hasn’t quite reached that point yet, it is
quickly gaining traction, and more and more people are using
it on a daily basis. Take Facebook’s organic post reach drop as
an example. Timelines became over-competitive, so Facebook
had to make tweaks to their algorithm, leaving only a tiny
portion of people who get to see your organic posts. The same
could happen to live streaming. Hence, if you wish to reach the
Figure 4 Hamro Patro Live Radio Streaming
necessary audience via live video, you should act now.

3. Reaching Highly Targeted Niches

As we’ve learned previously, viewing live streams requires more commitment from your
followers, simply because they need to tune in on your time, regardless of whether it’s the
best time for them or not. Consequently, this determination applies an automatic filter that
keep unrelated audiences away. Moreover, it’s very unlikely that people who are not
interested in your topic will join the conversation.

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 4. It’s Cheap

If you think about it, live streaming is incredibly cheap. In fact, it’s completely free. You
don’t need any special equipment, software, or hardware. All it takes is a smartphone or
laptop with a camera and an active account with a chosen platform, be it Facebook Live or
Periscope. While traditional blogging and content production would usually require a set of
properly configured software programs (e.g. hosting & platform), live streaming is accessible
to anyone in a matter of a click.

5. Takes Less Time to Produce

According to research conducted by Hubspot, it takes approximately 2 hours to write a 500-

word blog post, and anything between 4-8 hours to produce a 1,500-2,000 words article.
While a 500-word post would not be regarded as a comprehensive piece of content and would
not generate a lot of exposure, it can be easily read in 3-4 minutes. The data varies when it
comes to traditional video production like vlogs. According to Make Use of, it could take 2-3
hours to create and edit a simple vlog. Do you have a guess of how long it would take to
produce a 4-minute live video? You’re right, 4 minutes!

6. Real-Time Engagement

One of the biggest reasons why live-streaming is continuously

making a dent in content marketing is its ability to offer real-time
user engagement and join a direct conversation with the influencer.
Whenever you are reading a blog post, you are reading the work of
the past. Not only does it provide real-time engagement benefits to
users, it also gives an opportunity for businesses to offer live
Figure 5 Timely Engagement
support, Q&A sessions, and office tours.

7. The Ability to Repurpose Content

Although this point applies to pretty much any kind of content, live videos can be easily
transformed into other forms of content, be it a published video transcript on your personal
blog, an infographic on Visual.ly, or a reproduced video on YouTube. Your choices are
limitless. Nevertheless, it’s always advisable to repurpose content in order to broaden the
reach of your message.

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1.3. Real-time Interactive Audio/Video
This class of applications allows people to use audio/video to communicate with each
other in real time. Real-time interactive audio is often referred to as Internet phone, since,
from the user’s perspective, it is similar to traditional circuit-switched telephone service.
Internet phone can potentially provide PBX, local, and long-distance telephone service at
very low cost. It can also facilitate computer-telephone integration (CTI), group real-time
communication,
directory services,
caller identification,
caller filtering, and
more. There are
many internet
telephony products
currently available.
With real-time
interactive video,
also called video
conferencing,
individuals
Figure 6 NetMeeting Example
communicate
visually as well as orally. There are also many real-time interactive video products currently
available for the Internet, including Microsoft’s NetMeeting. Note that in a real-time
interactive audio/video application, a user can speak or move at any time. For a conversation
with interaction among multiple speakers, the delay from when a user speaks or moves until
the action is manifested at the receiving hosts should be less than a few hundred milliseconds.
For voice, delays smaller than 150 milliseconds are not perceived by a human listener, delays
between 150 and 400 milliseconds can be acceptable, and delays exceeding 400 milliseconds
can result in frustrating, if not completely unintelligible, voice conversations.

1.3.1. Delays
1. Delays < 150ms not perceived
2. Delays 150-400ms can be acceptable
3. 3. Delays > 400ms is frustrating Figure 7 Delivered Without and With Delay

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To sum up the multimedia classes,

Multimedia
Multimedia Classes
Classes

Real-time
Real-time
Straming
Straming stored
stored Streaming
Streaming live
live interactive
interactive
audio/video
audio/video audio/video
audio/video audio/video
audio/video

Figure 8 Multimedia Classes

Download-and-then-play applications not covered in the multimedia classes. Therefore, it is:

1. Pretty much like file transfers

2. Peer-to-peer file sharing
3. Client-server based file sharing

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Chapter 2. Hurdles for Multimedia in the Internet
IP, the Internet's network-layer protocol, provides a best-effort service to all the
datagrams it carries. In other words, the Internet makes its best effort to move each datagram
from sender to receiver as quickly as possible. However, the best-effort service does not
make any promises whatsoever about the end-to-end delay for an individual packet. Nor does
the service make any promises about the variation of packet delay within a packet stream.
Because TCP and UDP run over IP, neither of these protocols can make any delay guarantees
to invoking applications. Due to the lack of any special effort to deliver packets in a timely
manner, it is extremely challenging problem to develop successful multimedia networking
applications for the Internet.

Internet phone and real-time interactive video has, to date, been less successful than
streaming stored audio/video. Indeed, real-time interactive voice and video impose rigid
constraints on packet delay and packet
jitter. Packet jitter is the variability of
packet delays within the same packet
stream. Real-time voice and video can
work well in regions where bandwidth is
plentiful, and hence delay and jitter are
minimal. But quality can deteriorate to
Figure 9 Real-time Interactivity
unacceptable levels as soon as the real-time
voice or video packet stream hits a moderately congested link. To date, multimedia over the
Internet has achieved significant but limited success. For example, streaming store
audio/video with user-interactivity delays of five-to-ten seconds is now commonplace in the
Internet. But during peak traffic periods, performance may be unsatisfactory, particularly
when intervening links are congested links.

The design of multimedia applications would certainly be more straightforward if

there were some sort of first-class and second-class Internet services, whereby first-class
packets are limited in number and always get priorities in router queues. Such a first-class
service could be satisfactory for delay-sensitive applications. But, the Internet has mostly
taken an egalitarian approach to packet scheduling in router queues: all packets receive equal
service; no packets, including delay-sensitive audio and video packets, get any priorities in
the router queues.

9
 No matter how much money you have or how important you are, you must join the
end of the line and wait your turn! So for the time being we have to live with the best effort
service. No matter how important or how rich we are, our packets have to wait their turn in
router queues. But given this constraint, we can make several design decisions and employ a
few tricks to improve the user-perceived quality of a
multimedia networking application. For example, we
can send the audio and video over UDP, and thereby
circumvent TCP's low throughput when TCP enters its
slow-start phase. We can delay playback at the
receiver by 10ms or more in order to diminish the
effects of network-induced jitter. We can timestamp
packets at the sender so that the receiver knows when
Figure 10 Real-time Video Chat
the packets should be played back. For stored
audio/video we can pre-fetch data during playback when client storage and extra bandwidth
is available. We can even send redundant information in order to mitigate the effects of
network-induced packet loss.

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Chapter 3. Servers
Content providers wanting to deliver streams can set up a server environment in several
different ways:

1. Subscribe to one of the online live streaming video Web services such as YouTube or
UStream.
2. Build a private internet media server by installing specialized commercial software
onto a Web server. An example of media server software includes RealNetworks
Helix Server.

A dedicated Web server or streaming server software in a Web server that delivers live or
on-demand multimedia content to client devices. See streaming audio, streaming video,
CDN, Adobe Media Server, Smooth Streaming, HTTP Live Streaming and RealMedia.
Contrast with streaming player. Streaming media is transmitted by a server application and
received and displayed in real-time by a client application called a media player. A media
player can be either an integral part of a browser, a plug-in, a separate program, or a
dedicated device, such as an iPod. Frequently, video files come with embedded players.
YouTube videos, for example, run in embedded Flash players.

3.1. Types of Servers

1. Streaming Server
2. Web Server

Both methods are used widely throughout but have advantages and disadvantages. Web
servers and dedicated streaming media servers offer unique capabilities to producers and end
users, in terms of how simple they are to set up and manage on the producer’s end, and what
the experience is like on the user’s end. Choose your server as per your preference. It’s over
the Web, the streaming process has created an explosion in the use of audio and video media.
Further, which has promoted the development of two different methods of streaming. One is
the use of a standard Web server : as those used to host the bulk of the sites on the Web, and
the other involves a server which has been specifically tailored to the delivery of media files.

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 Web Server Streaming Server

Web Servers are cheaper and are easy to use Far more powerful way of delivering media

Up to the mark user experience Improved user experience

The only way to deliver audio and video on The user clicks on a file, it begins to play
the Web was through downloading: the user almost instantaneously; while the user is
would download an entire file to their watching or listening to the file, it is being
computer, then play it back through a local delivered “in the background” at the same
media player. time.

As long as the media is delivered online

Files were inherently large, took a long time
faster than it is being played by the viewer’s
to download, and then provided a very short
media player, it provides a continuous
and unsatisfying user experience
experience for the user.

Steps for Uploading and Storing:                 

1. First, the deliverer compresses the audio

and/or video into a combined media file, Media produced for dedicated streaming
slated for delivery over a specific servers is also compressed and then
bandwidth. transferred to specialized servers. Links to
that media are then placed on web pages
2. The producer uploads those files onto the
which exist on a standard web server.
same server that hosts on web pages. The
producer needs to add a link to any one of
those media files from web pages.

Figure 11 Differences Between Streaming and Web Server

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 Web Server Streaming Server

Media player begins playing stored portion Streaming servers employ an intelligent
of the file, while still collecting the rest of flexible and dynamic methodology that
the file from the web server. Because there is involves delivering their data at a rate
a small stored portion of data, the media tailored to the compression of the audio and
player can continue to play the file, even video files.
though the speed of delivery may vary.

Web Server does not maintain close and Unlike standard web servers, streaming
active contact with the clients media servers can receive feedback from
the clients, and act accordingly

Two technologies involved in web server In addition, streaming servers can use
streaming: Hyper Text Transport Protocol alternate technologies such as User
(HTTP), and Transmission Control Protocol Datagram Protocol (UDP). Much faster
(TCP). than the traditional TCP technology

Utilize existing infrastructure. No new Supports advanced features such as: VCR
software infrastructure needs to be installed controls, detailed reporting of played
or managed streams, live video delivery, Adaptive Bit-
Rate streaming

Figure 12 Differences Between Streaming and Web Server Cond.

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Figure 13 Working of Web Server and Streaming Server

Figure 14 Example of working of Streaming Server

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3.2. Delivering Data
There are many options for delivering audio/video through servers and others. Some
options are listed as below:

1. Send over UDP at a constant rate equal to the drain rate at the receiver
2. Server clocks out data and client playbacks as soon as data is decompressed
3. Same as above, but with delayed playback
4. Place data in media player buffer, delayed playback
5. TCP congestion control may lead to starvation (empty buffer)
6. Eliminate network-induced jitter

Figure 15 Delivering Data

Feature Windows Media Web server

Services
Stream through most firewalls X X

Stream content with Digital Rights Management X X

Fast Streaming X

Stream without downloading X

Broadcast (live) X

Intelligent streaming X

Optimized for streaming Windows Media content X

Indexing X

Administering and logging X

Figure 16 An example of Microsoft server comparison

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Chapter 4. Conclusion
To wrap up, the multimedia service requirements are significantly different compared
to traditional ones such as e-mail, file downloading, web browsing. Multimedia applications
are applications that are sensitive to end-to-end delay, sensitive to delay variation (delay
jitter), less sensitive to occasional loss of data and the network could make performance
guarantees. And the multimedia classes are streaming stored audio/video, streaming live
audio/video and real-time interactive audio/video.

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Chapter 5. References
Digitalrightsdirector.com. (2019). Windows Streaming Server or Web Server Considerations.
[online] Available at:
https://www.digitalrightsdirector.com/streaming_server_or_web_server.html [Accessed
27 Mar. 2019].

Garden, H. and Basics, I. (2019). How Streaming Video and Audio Work. [online]
HowStuffWorks. Available at:
https://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/streaming-video-and-audio3.htm
[Accessed 24 Mar. 2019].

Lifehack. (2019). 7 Powerful Benefits Of Live Streaming. [online] Available at:

https://www.lifehack.org/534461/7-powerful-benefits-live-streaming [Accessed 26 Mar.
2019].

Lifewire. (2019). What Is a Server in Computer Neworking?. [online] Available at:

https://www.lifewire.com/servers-in-computer-networking-817380 [Accessed 26 Mar.
2019].

Net.t-labs.tu-berlin.de. (2019). Introduction. [online] Available at: https://www.net.t-labs.tu-

berlin.de/teaching/computer_networking/06.01.htm [Accessed 28 Mar. 2019].

Oodlestechnologies.com. (2019). Web Server Vs Streaming Server. [online] Available at:

https://www.oodlestechnologies.com/blogs/Web-Server-Vs-Streaming-Server [Accessed
25 Mar. 2019].

Pcmag.com. (2019). streaming server Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia. [online]

Available at: https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/52137/streaming-server
[Accessed 28 Mar. 2019].

Slideshare.net. (2019). Multimedia networking. [online] Available at:

https://www.slideshare.net/KikimaJimmy/multimedia-networking-28567873 [Accessed
28 Mar. 2019].

Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2019). Advantages & Disadvantages of Streaming Video. [online]

Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-streaming-
video-67979.html [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

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