system and method for controlling the adjustment of adaptive distributed multimedia applications

摘要

The underlying invention generally relates to the field of Distributed Multimedia Systems (DMSs), applications and technologies in heterogeneous communication networks with highspeed access. It includes research and development issues which are especially related to multimedia middleware, Quality-of-Service (QoS) Management, adaptive applications, mobile terminals and wireless communication. In this context, the invention presents a sophisticated middleware framework (304) implemented on a client (204) supporting distributed multimedia applications (302) to dynamically adapt to varying resource availability. The middleware framework (304) enables the distributed multimedia applications (302) to specify the media they want to use and the relationships between these media. Using this information from all running distributed multimedia applications (302), the middleware framework (304) calculates the adaptation possibilities and controls the adaptation process. Said middleware framework (304) comprises a Media Management Subsystem (404) for managing multimedia data to periodically send status events from running media items (614), which contain measured information of media and transmission parameters, such as frame rate and/or packet loss, and an Adaptation Engine (402) for controlling the adaptation of said distributed multimedia applications (302) to the current resource availability. IMAGE