Mcast: A multicast multimedia communication software development platform

Abstract

The Internet explosion is driving the need for distributed multimedia presentations (DMPs), which provide multiple users with QoS-controlled multimedia services such as media distribution and virtual classroom. The provision of DMPs is usually based on the multi-cast communication. However, the jitter phenomenon over the best-effort Internet always disturbs the orchestration of multimedia presentations. Furthermore, the characteristics of multiple media streams combining the multicast delivery complicate the network and system deployment. In this paper, we describe the major considerations and techniques of designing multiple-stream multimedia presentations in a multicast communication environment. Based on the proposed control schemes, we develop a communication engine named Mcast. Mcast (i) provides the flexible authoring tool to allow users to author a multiple-stream multi-media presentation in a multicast environment and (ii) achieves smooth multimedia presentations with the well-designed temporal control mechanism.