Real-time issues in distributed multimedia systems

Abstract

The fundamental characteristics of multimedia systems is that they incorporate continuous media, such as voice, video, and animated graphics. This implies the need for multimedia systems to handle data with strict timing requirements and at high rate. This article discusses important real-time issues in distributed multimedia systems including media synchronization, operating system support for continuous media, scheduling issues for on-demand multimedia applications, and real-time architectures of future interactive TV-converter boxes. Several solutions of these problems are presented in the article.<>