An integrated application/service platform to support multimedia applications

This paper describes a communication support system for multimedia applications relying on the development of an integrated application/service platform. The proposed architecture includes a service platform that provides communication services and their management to multimedia applications and an application platform that provides end-point application services. The former is implemented via an interface re siding at OSI Presentation Service Access Point (PSAP) and the latter via an interface residing at OSI Application Service Access Point (ASAP). It is anticipated that the combination of the proposed integrated application/service platform will ensure the interoperability among existing and future multimedia applications within the broadband environment. It is widely accepted that the key requirement for a multimedia application is the availability of a distributed multimedia environment. Multimedia applications could be distinguished as interactive or non-interactive such as conferencing and video-on-demand, respectively, and impose specific requirements to be met, i.e. synchronization of isochronous streams, end-to-end delay constraints and multicast transmissions. In this paper we propose an enhanced protocol/service structure that overcomes the weaknesses of the conventional OSI Reference Model. The result of this approach is an application/service platform that provides a QoS support throughout all OSI upper layers. Finally, adaptations of OSI elements are proposed.<>