Multimedia Applications

Multimedia Applications
Interpersonal Communications.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Speech Only Image Only Text Only Text and images. Speech and Video.

Interactive Applications over the Internet. Entertainment Applications.

Speech Only
Calls through PC:Requirements:1. 2. Telephone Interface Card. A Telephone Interface Card and associated software and is known as Computer telephony Integration(software). Addition services: 1. Voice-Mail:- the event when the called party being unavailable. A spoken message can be left in voice mailbox 2. voice-mail server.- Central repository where it is called 3. Teleconferencing:- These calls involve multiple interconnected telephones/PCs It requires a central unit providing necessary support to set up a conference call automatically known as audio bridge.

VoIP:- voice over IP.

PC to PC telephone call-Internet operates in a packet mode. Both PCs have necessary hardware and software to convert speech signal from microphone to packets on input and back. Network protocol associated with Internet is called IP ,voice over IP

Telephony Gateway.
PC telephone call to telephone connected to PSTN/ISDN PC user sends a request to make a call to a pre-allocated telephone gateway using its Internet Address Gateway requests from source PC ,telephone number of called party Source gateway initiates a session with telephony gateway nearest to the called party using gateways Internet Address Called gateway initiates a call to the recipient telephone using its telephone number and standard call set up procedure of PSTN/ISDN

Image Only
Between 2 fax machines
Caller keys in the telephone number of intended recipient and a circuit is established through network(same as telephone call) The sending machine starts to scan and digitize each page of the doc Both machines have integrated modems within them , as each page is scanned ,its digitized and send over the network At receivers end , printed version of the doc is produced

PC Fax:The digital image of each page of the document is sent as the scanned image. Requirements:1. Telephone Interface Card. 2. Associated Software.

Text Only
Email:Requirements:
1. Email server. 2. Mailbox.

Both email servers and internetwork gateway operate using standard internet communication protocols.

Text and Images

Computer-supported cooperative working(CSCW). Shared whiteboard:- window on each persons display. Whiteboard program:- software associated with CSCW Linked set of support programs on each PC.

 Change-Notification:- whenever any member of group updates the contents of their whiteboard the change-notification part sends details of the changes to the whiteboard program. Update-Control:- When any changes are notified, this relays the changes to the updatecontrol in each of the other PCs and these in turn proceed to update the contents of their copy of the whiteboard.

Speech and video

Video Telephony
The network must provide a 2- way comm channel between 2 parties of sufficient bandwidth to support integrated speech and video generated by each terminal/PC

Desktop Videoconferencing
A call may involve several people each located at different site Large corporations have enterprise wide network to link the sites together In order to support videoconferencing , there is central unit called a Multipoint Control Unit(MCU) A separate window on the screen of each participants PC is used to display video image of all other participants It require multiple integrated speech-video comm channnels ,one 4 each participant being sent to each of the other,it requires more bandwidth The integrated speech-video info stream from each participant is sent to the MCU which then selects just a single info stream to send to each participant In this way, a single 2-way comm channel between each location and MCU is required reducing bandwidth requirement

Multicasting
Transmissions from any of the PCs belonging to a pre-defined multicast group are received by all the other members of the group Networks that support multicasting , it is possible to hold a conferencing session without an MCU Only feasible when only limited number of participants are involved

Video conferencing
A person at 1 location communicating with a group of people at other location Eg: Transmission of live lecture or seminar Info stream transferred from lecturer to class would be integrated speech and video together with electronic copies of transparencies and other documents In reverse direction , it comprises just speech or integrated speech and video Specially equipped rooms called video conferencing studios comprises one or more video cameras , large screen display and audio equipment all of which is connected to a unit called videoconferencing system

Video conferencing(contd)
Lecture relayed to multiple locations, either separate comm channel is required to each remote site or MCU is used at lecturers site An MCU is normally used to minimize the bandwidth demands on the access circuits to network Using MCU , a single 2-way comm channel is required for each accesscircuit of the network If private network is used, MCU is normally located at one of the sites .The comm reqs at that site is more demanding since it must support multiple input channels and a single output channel

Multimedia
3 examples of e-mail consisting of media types other than text: Voice-mail User enters a voice message addressed to intended recipient and the local-mail server then relays this to server associated with the intended recipients network The stored voice message is then played out the next time the recipient accesses his/her voice-mailbox Multimedia mail The textual info is annotated with a digitized image a speech/video message It can be sent either directly to mailbox of intended recipient together with original textual message ,stored and played in normal way They may have to be requested specifically .Recipient receive the basic text- only message but multimedia annotations can be received only if terminal supports voice/video

Interactive applications over the Internet

Web pages Hyperlinks- linkages between the pages, references either to other pages of same document or to any other document within the total web Documents comprising only text are created using hypertext Anyone can create a new doc at a particular server site providing the server has been allocated an Internet address and make hyperlink references from it to any other doc on Web. Each doc has unique address known as uniform resource locator(URL). Hypertext Markup Language(HTML) It is used for writing client software to explore the total contents of web Client function is called Browser

Entertainment applications
Movie/Video on demand Interactive television

Movie/Video-on-demand
N/W used to support this type of application must be either a PSTN with high bit rate modem or cable network

Networks supported by movie/video on demand

Movie/Video-on-demand(contd..)
Info stored on the server is a collection of digitized movies/videos User interactions are relayed to the server through a set-top box with high bit rate modem integrated Through a suitable menu , subscriber browse through the set of movies/videos available and initiate the showing of a selected movie In addition to showing of movie , it can use controls similar in a VCR i.e pause , fast forward

Movie/Video-on-demand(contd..)
Subscriber initiate showing of movie selected at any time This means server must be capable of playing out simultaneously a large number of video streams equal to no. of subscribers currently watching the movie Requires extremely high info flow as it must support transmission as well as multiple copies of each movie It is challenging and costly

Near movie-on demand(N-MOD)

Server supporting large number of subscribers, it is common for several subscribers to request the same movie within a relatively short time interval between each request Alternative mode of operation is one in which requests for particular movie are not played out immediately but instead are queued up until the start of the next play out time of the movie All requests for same movie made during the period up to the next play out time are satisfied simultaneously by the server outputting a single video stream

Interactive television
Broadcast television networks include cable, satellite and terrestrial networks STB associated with these networks also has a modem within it. A cable modem integrated into STB provide a low bit rate channel(connect subscriber to PSTN) and a high bit rate channel(connect subscriber to Internet) from subscriber to cable head end

 By connecting appropriate terminal equipment to STB like telephone the subscriber is able to gain access to all the services provided through the PSTN and Internet Services provided are voting ,participation in games, home shopping etc.

Application and networking terminology

Media Types Communication modes Network Types Multipoint conferencing Network QoS Application QoS

Media Types
Information flow associated with different applications can be either continuous or block-mode(types of info streams) Continuous mode media - Information stream generated by source continuously in a time dependent way It is passed directly to destination as it is generated and at destination , the info stream is played out directly as it is received .This mode of operation is called streaming Continuous mode media is also known as real-time media Source info stream is generated at 2 rates: Constant bit rate Variable bit rate

Constant bit rate/Variable bit rate

CBR-Constant Bit Rate is an encoding method that keeps the bit rate the same. CBR processes audio faster than VBR due to its fixed bit rate value. The downside to a fixed bit rate is that the files that are produced are not as optimized for quality vs. storage as VBR. For example, if there is a quiet section in a music track that doesnt require the full bit rate to produce good quality sound then CBR will still use the same value - thus wasting storage space.

VBR- the bitrate used in sound or video encoding. VBR files vary the
amount of output data per time segment. VBR allows a higher bitrate (and therefore more storage space) to be allocated to the more complex segments of media files while less space is allocated to less complex segments. MP3 audio files can optionally be encoded in VBR. Variable bit rate encoding is also commonly used on MPEG-2 video, MPEG-4 Part 2 video

Block mode media

Block mode media- Source Information comprises single block of info generated by source in a time independent way For eg:- a block of text representing an e-mail /computer program,2dimensional matrix of pixel values that represent an image It is created in a time independent way and stored in a file. The block of info is transferred across the network to the destination where it is again stored and output/displayed at a time determined by requesting app program. This mode of operation is called downloading The delay b/w the request being made and contents of the block being output at destination within an acceptable time interval. This is known as round trip delay(RTD)

Communication Modes
Simplex Half-Duplex Full-Duplex Broadcast Multicast

N/W types
2 types of comm channels Circuit-mode(time- dependent way) Also known as synchronous comm channel ,providing a constant bit rate service at a specified rate Packet mode(time-varying way) Also known as asynchronous comm channel ,providing a variable bit rate determined by the transfer rate of packets

Circuit-mode
Comprises of interconnected set of switching offices/exchanges to which terminals are connected The source must first set up a connection through the network. Each subscriber has unique network-wide number/address associated with it Source enters the no. to make a call and LSE uses this to set up a connection through the network to switching office connected to the destination The bit rate associated with the connection is fixed The message associated with the setting and clearing of connection are known as signaling messages A time delay while a connection is being established is known as call/connection setup display. This delay can range from a fraction of a sec in a PSTN and from tens of milliseconds through hundred milliseconds in an ISDN

Packet mode

Connection - oriented
In a packet switched network ,connection is set up known as virtual connection/circuit To set up a VC source terminal sends a call request control packet to its local PSE which contains a short identifier that is actually used for data transfer known as the virtual-circuit identifier (VCI) It is a small number that has only switch scope; it is used by a frame between two switches. When a frame arrives at a switch, it has a VCI; when it leaves, it has a different VCl . the VCI in a data frame changes from one switch to another. Note that a VCI does not need to be a large number since each switch can use its own unique set of VCls Eg:- ATM networks

Operations: 1. Address information is included in header 2. CRC for error recovery 3. switches inspect destination address in header to determine next hop 4. Packets are put in QUEUE to wait for line becoming available 5. Sharing lines among multiple packets, high utilization is at the expense of queue delay 6. Packets travel independently and may along different paths

Packet 1
Packet 1

Packet 2 Packet 2 Packet 2 7. Route may be detoured,thus bypassing failure and congestion 8. Packets may arrive out of order, resequencing may be required

Datagram packet switching

Figure 7.15

46

Connection - Less
Establishment of connection is not required . 2 communicating terminals can communicate and exchange info as and when they wish It also allows for multicast and broadcast operations, which may save even more network resources when the same data needs to be transmitted to several recipients. In contrast, a connection is always unicast (point-to-point). Each packet must carry full source and destination address in its header for each PSE to route the packet onto the appropriate outgoing link In both network types ,each packet received on an incoming link is stored in memory buffer A check is made to determine if any bit errors are present , if error is detected the packet is simply discarded The service offered by a packet switched network is said to be a best effort service If no error, the address carried in packet header are read to determine the outgoing link and the packet is placed in a queue ready for forwarding on the selected outgoing link It is possible for a sequence of packets to be received on a number of incoming links all of which need forwarding on the same outgoing link A packet may experience an additional delay while it is in O/P queue for a link waiting to be transmitted

Connection Less(contd..)
The delay varies depending on the no. of packets that are currently present in the queue when a new packet arrives for forwarding This mode of operation is known as store-and-forward Sum of store-and-forward delays in each router/PSE contributes to overall delay of packet over the n/w .Mean of this delay is known as mean packet transfer delay and variation about mean is delay variation /jitter Eg:- Internet

Multipoint conferencing
Multipoint conferencing is implemented in 2 ways: Centralized and Decentralized Centralized mode- It is used with circuit switched networks like PSTN/ISDN A centralized conference server is used Each terminal sends its own media stream like audio, video etc integrated in some way to the server using established connection The server in turns, distributes either the media stream received from a selected terminal or mix of media streams received from several terminals back to all other terminals involved in conference Decentralized mode- It is used with packet-switched networks that support multi cast comm like Internet The o/p of each terminal is received by all the other members of conference/multicast group A conference server is not normally used and instead it is the responsibility of each terminal to manage the info streams that it receives from other members

 Hybrid mode- Various terminals that make up the conference are attached to diff n/w types Conference comprises 4 terminals ,2 attached to circuit-switched n/w and 2 to a packet-switched n/w that support multicasting In this mode ,it is the server that determines the o/p stream(s) to be sent to each terminal 4 Types of Conferencing Data Conferencing Audio Conferencing Video Conferencing Multimedia Conferencing

 Data Conferencing Info flow is infrequent, general purpose comp with conference function implemented in software Audio Conferencing Audio bridge is used and typical units support from 6 to 48 conference participants Video Conferencing/Multimedia Conferencing MCU consist of 2 parts: MC(Multipoint controller)- concerned with the establishment of connections to each of conference participants and an agreed set of operational parameters screen resolution, refresh rate etc. MP(Multipoint processor)-concerned with the distribution of info streams generated

 Voice activated switching mode In a video conferencing system, generally a number of people are involved at every site. If the camera could automatically turn and focus on the person who is speaking in real time, it would help others to identify who is speaking this is the function of voice activated cameras. Voice activated cameras can either automatically focus on the person who is speaking or the same can be obtained by storing certain pre-set positions for the camera. This helps bring individual attention. If 2 participants starting to talk at same time MCU normally selects the person who speaks the loudest Continuous presence mode-remote window is divided into no. of windows , each of which displays the face of the last set of participants who spoke / who are currently speaking

Network QoS
Operational Parameters associated with a communication channel through a network are known as Network Quality of Service (QoS) Determine the suitability of the channel in relation to its use for a particular application Circuit switched network(QoS parameters) Bit Rate Mean Bit Error Rate Transmission Delay Mean Bit Error Rate-Probability of a bit being corrupted during its transmission across the channel in a defined time interval A mean BER of 10-3 means on an average for every 1000 bits that are transmitted, 1 of these bits will be corrupted If the application involves speech, then occasional bit error will go unnoticed but in an application involving the transfer of financial info it is essential that received info contains no errors

Circuit switched network(QoS parameters)

Prior to transmission the source info is normally divided into blocks , the max size of which is determined by mean BER If mean BER is 10-3, no. of bits in a block must be considerably less than 1000 otherwise Probability of block containing a bit error PB: PB=1-(1-P)N which approx to N*P if N*P is less than 1,where P is mean BER probability and number of bits in a block is N Unreliable/Best-try/Best-Effort Service-Any block containing errors will be discarded either within the n/w or in the n/w interface at the destination Reliable Service- If application dictates only error-free blocks are acceptable , sending terminal divide source info into blocks of defines max size and destination detect when a block is missing and request that source send another copy of missing block

Calculating block size

Circuit switched network(QoS parameters)

Transmission Delay-it is the amount of time required to push all of the packet's bits into the wire. In other words, this is the delay caused by the data-rate of the link. Transmission delay is a function of the packet's length and has nothing to do with the distance between the two nodes. This delay is proportional to the packet's length in bits propagation delay is the amount of time it takes for the head of the signal to travel from the sender to the receiver over a medium. It can be computed as the ratio between the link length and the propagation speed over the specific medium. Propagation delay = d/s where d is the distance and s is the wave propagation speed.

Calculation of Propagation delay

Packet switched network(QoS parameters)

The QoS parameters associated with a packetswitched network include: The maximum packet size The mean packet transfer rate The mean packet error rate The mean packet transfer delay The worst-case jitter The transmission delay

QoS parameters
Mean packet transfer rate is a measure of the average number of packets that are transferred across the network per second Mean bit rate of the channel = mean packet transfer rate * mean packet size Mean packet error rate (PER) is the probability of a received packet containing bit errors. Mean packet transfer delay is the summation of the store-and-forward delay that a packet experiences when it travels along the route. The transmission delay includes the codec delay and the signal propagation delay is the same whether the network operates in a packet mode or a circuit mode

jitter
Jitter is a problem if different packets of data encounter different delays and the application using the data at the receiver site is time-sensitive (audio and video data, for example). Jitter is the variation in delay for packets belonging to the same flow. For example, if four packets depart at times 0, 1, 2, 3 and arrive at 20, 21, 22, 23, all have the same delay, 20 units of time. On the other hand, if the above four packets arrive at 21, 23, 21,and 28, they will have different delays: 21,22, 19, and 24. For applications such as audio and video, the first case is completely acceptable; the second case is not. For these applications, it does not matter if the packets arrive with a short or long delay as long as the delay is the same for all packets. For this application,the second case is not acceptable. Jitter is defined as the variation in the packet delay. High jitter means the difference between delays is large; low jitter means the variation is small.

Application QoS
The application QoS parameters that relate to the network include: The required bit rate or mean packet transfer rate The maximum startup delay Maximum delay variation/jitter Maximum round-trip delay

Startup delay
Startup delay defines the amount of time that elapses between an application making a request to start a session and the confirmation being received from the application at the destination.

Suitability
A circuit-switched network would be most appropriate for applications that involve the transfer of a constant bit rate stream. Why? 1. The call setup delay is not important. 2. The channel provides a constant bit rate service of a known rate. A connectionless packet-switched network would be more appropriate for interactive applications. Why? 1. There is no network call setup delay 2. Any variations in the packet delay are not important

Buffering
When packet-switched network is used: A technique known as buffering is used to overcome the effect of jitter in a packet-switched network. The effect of jitter is overcome by retaining a defined number of packets in a memory buffer at the destination before playout of the information bitstrem is started. Buffering delay plus the time for playing a packet must be larger than the worst-case jitter.

Packetization delay
Packetization delay is the delay incurred at the source to packetize the information. The larger the size of a packet, the larger the packetization delay is. Some other concerns when determining the packet size: Is retransmission required? Is the destination buffer larger enough to handle the worst-case jitter?

How to use QoS in multimedia communication?

In order to simplify the process of determining whether a particular network can meet the QoS requirements of an application, a number of standard application service classes have been defined. A specific set of QoS parameters is associated with each class. In order to ensure the QoS parameters associated with each class are met, the packets relating to each class are given a different priority in a network that supports a number of different service classes.