Instant-X: a component-based middleware architecture for a generic multimedia API

Today, it is a complex task to develop multimedia applications because only basic protocols and codecs are available. This leads to inflexible proprietary software implementing unavailable functionality on its own. In this work we present Instant-X, a novel OSGi-based middleware for a generic multimedia API. Instant-X provides standard multimedia components and supports dynamic deployment, i.e., unavailable components are automatically discovered and loaded in a peer-to-peer network on demand. This eases application development and allows reusing common components for multiple applications. Unlike related work, Instant-X provides a generic API for essential tasks of multimedia applications. This API abstracts from concrete component implementations and thus allows replacing specific protocol implementations at runtime.