Efficient group communication with guaranteed quality of service

A specific class of multimedia applications is expected to be of importance for future communication networks: multi-party interactive multimedia (MIM). Based on the isolation and characterization of MIM applications, concrete network support requirements are derived. The varying degree of connectivity, the vastly different sizes in terms of participants and the reliance on a guaranteed quality of service make MIM support a difficult problem. Starting with the definition of multimedia communication abstractions, principles of solutions are sketched. For an important subclass of applications, a particularly efficient and practicable alternative implementation based on half-duplex channels is introduced. Interfaces at both the transport and network layers are also considered.<>