IT6501-Graphics and Multimedia Unit 5

UNIT V HYPERMEDIA 9
Multimedia authoring and user interface − Hypermedia messaging − Mobilemessaging − Hypermedia
message component − Creating hypermedia message −Integrated multimedia message standards −
Integrated document management −Distributed multimedia systems.

5.1 Multimedia authoring and User Interface

5.1.1Multimedia Authoring Systems

Multimedia authoring systems are designed with two primary target users: They are
(i) Professionals who prepare documents, audio or sound tracks, and full motion video clips
for wide distribution.
(il) Average business users preparing documents, audio recordings, or full motion video clips
for stored messages' or presentations.
The authoring system covers user interface. The authoring system spans issues such as data access,
storage structures for individual components embedded in a document, the user's ability to browse
through stored objects, and so on.
Most authoring systems are managed by a control application.
Design Issues for Multimedia Authoring
Enterprise wide standards should be set up to ensure that the user requirements are fulfilled with
good quality and made the objects transferable from one system to another.
So standards must be set for a number of design issues
1. Display resolution
2. Data formula for capturing data
3. Compression algorithms
4. Network interfaces
5. Storage formats.
Display resolution
A number of design issues must be considered for handling different display outputs. They are:
(a) Level of standardization on display resolutions.
(b) Display protocol standardization.
(c) Corporate norms for service degradations
(d) Corporate norms for network traffic degradations as they relate to resolution issues Setting
norms will be easy if the number of different work station types, window managers, and monitor
resolutions are limited in number. But if they are more in number, setting norms will be difficult.
Another consideration is selecting protocols to use. Because a number of protocols have emerged,
including AVI, Indeo, Quick Time and so on.So, there should be some level of convergence that
allows these three display protocols to exchange data and allow viewing files in other formats.
File Format and Data Compression Issues
There are variety of data formats available for image, audio, and full motion video objects.
Since the varieties are so large, controlling them becomes difficult. So we should not standardize
on a single format. Instead, we should select a set for which reliable conversion application tools
are available.
Another key design Issue is to standardize on one or two compression formula for each type
of data object. For example for facsimile machines, CCITT Group 3 and 4 should be included in
the selected standard. Similarly, for full motion video, the selected standard should include MPEG
and its derivatives such as MPEG 2.
While doing storage, it is useful to have some information (attribute information) about the
object itself available outside the object to allow a user to decide if they need to access the object
data. one of such attribute information are:
(i) Compression type (ii) Size of the object
(iii) Object orientation (iv)Data and time of creation

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(v) Source file name (vi)Version number (if any)

(vii) Required software application to display or playback the object.

Service degradation policies: Setting up Corporate norms for network traffic degradation is
difficult as they relate to resolution Issues:
To address these design issues, several policies are possible. They are:
1. Decline further requests with a message to try later.
2. Provide the playback server but at a lower resolution.
3. Provide the playback service at full resolution but, in the case of sound and full motion
video, drop intermediate frames.
Design Approach to Authoring
Designing an authoring system spans a number of design issues. They include:
Hypermedia application design specifics, User Interface aspects, Embedding/Linking streams of
objects to a main document or presentation, Storage of and access to multimedia objects. Playing
back combined streams in a synchronized manner.
A good user interface design is more important to the success of hypermedia applications.
Types of Multimedia Authoring Systems
There are varying degrees of complexity among the authoring systems. For example, dedicated
authoring systems that handle only one kind of an object for a single user is simple, where as
programmable systems are most complex.
Dedicated Authority Systems
Dedicated authoring systems are designed for a single user and generally for single streams.
Designing this type of authoring system is simple, but if it should be capable of combining even two
object streams, it becomes complex. The authoring is performed on objects captured by the local
video camera and image scanner or an objects stored in some form of multimedia object library. In
the case of dedicated authoring system, users need not to be experts in multimedia or a professional
artist. But the dedicated systems should be designed in such a way that. It has to provide user
interfaces that are extremely intuitive and follow real-world metaphors.
A structured design approach will be useful in isolating the visual and procedural design
components.
TimeLine –based authoring
In a timeline based authoring system, objects are placed along a timeline. The timeline can be
drawn on the screen in a window in a graphic manner, or it created using a script in a mann.er
similar to a project plan. But, the user must specify a resource object and position it in the timeline.
On playback, the object starts playing at that point in the time Scale.
In most timeline based approaches, once the multimedia object has been captured in a timeline, .it is
fixed in location and cannot be manipulated easily, So, a single timeline causes loss of information
about the relative time lines for each individual object.

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Structured Multimedia Authoring

A structured multimedia authoring approach was presented by Hardman. It is an evolutionary
approach based on structured object-level construction of complex presentations. This approach
consists of two stages:
(i) The construction of the structure of a presentation.
(ii) Assignment of detailed timing constraints.
A successful structured authoring system must provide the following capabilities for navigating
through the structure of presentation.
1.Ability to view the complete structure.
2.Maintain a hierarchy of objects.
3.Capability to zoom down to any specific
component. 4.View specific components in part or
from start to finish.
5.Provide a running status of percentage full of the designated length of the
presentation. 6.Clearly show the timing relations between the various components.
7.Ability to address all multimedia types including text, image, audio, video and frame based digital
images.
The author must ensure that there is a good fit within each object hierarchy level. The navigation
design of authoring system should allow the author to view the overall structure while examining a
specific object segment more closely.
Programmable Authoring Systems
Early structured authoring tools were not able to allow the authors to express automatic function for
handling certain routine tasks. But, programmable authoring system bas improved in providing
powerful functions based on image processing and analysis and embedding program interpreters to
use image-processing functious.
The capability of this authoring system is enhanced by Building user programmability in the
authoring tool to perform the analysis and to manipulate the stream based on the analysis results
and also manipulate the stream based on the analysis results. The programmability allows the
following tasks through the program interpreter rather than manually. Return the time stamp of the
next frame. Delete a specified movie segment. Copy or cut a specified movie segment to the clip
board . Replace the current segment with clip board contents.
Multisource Multi-user Authoring Systems
We can have an object hierarchy in a geographic plane; that is, some objects may be linked to other
objects by position, while others may be independent and fixed in position".
We need object data, and information on composing it. Composing means locating it in reference
to other objects in time as Well as space.
Once the object is rendered (display of multimedia object on the screen) the author can manipulate
it and change its rendering information must be available at the same time for display.If there are
no limits on network bandwidth and server performance, it would be possible to assemble required
components on cue at the right time to be rendered.
In addition to the multi-user compositing function A multi user authoring system must provide
resource allocation and scheduling of multimedia objects.
Telephone Authoring systems
There is an application where the phone is linking into multimedia electronic mail application
1. Tele phone can be used as a reading device by providing fill text to-speech synthesis capability so
that a user on the road can have electronic mail messages read out on the telephone.
2. The phone can be used for voice command input for setting up and managing voice mail
messages. Digitized voice clips are captured via the phone and embedded in electronic mail
messages.
3. As the capability to recognize continuous speech is deploy phones can be used to create
electronic mail messages where the voice is converted to ASCII text on the fly by high-
performance voice recognition engines.

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Phones provide a means of using voice where the alternative of text on a screen is not available. A
phone can be used to provide interactive access to electronic mail, calendar information databases,
public information databass and news reports, electronic news papers and a variety of other
applications. !ntegrating of all these applications in a common authoring tool requires great skill in
planning.

The telephone authoring systems support different kinds of applications. Some of them are:
1.Workstation controls for phone mail.
2.Voice command controls for phone mail.
3.Embedding of phone mail in electric mail.
4.Integration of phone mail and voice messages with electronic mail.
5.Voice Synthesis in integrated voice mail and electronic mail.
6.Local /remote continuous speech recognition.

5.1.2 Hypermedia Application Design Consideration

The user interface must be highly intuitive to allow the user to learn the tools quickly and be able to
use them effectively. In addition, the user interface should be designed to cater to the needs of both
experienced and inexperienced user.
In addition to control of their desktop environments, user also need control of their system
environment. This control should include some of the following:
The ability to specify a primary server for each object class within a domain specified by
the system administrative. A domain can be viewed as a list of servers to which they have
unrestricted access.
The ability to specify whether all multimedia -objects or only references should be
replicated. The ability to specify that the multimedia object should be retrieved immediately
for display versus waiting for a signal to "play" the object. This is more significant if the
object must be retrieved from a remote server.
Display resolution defaults for each type of graphics or video object.
Essential for good hypermedia design:
1.Determining the type of hypermedia application.
2.Structuring the information.
3.Determining the navigation throughout the application.
4.Methodologies for accessing the information.
5.Designing the user interface.
Integration of Applications
The computer may be called upon to run a diverse set of applications, including some combination
of the following:
1. Electronic mail.
2. Word processing or technical publishing.

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3. Graphics and formal presentation preparation

software. 4.Spreadsheet or some other decision support
software. 5.Access to a relational on object-oriented
database.
6. Customized applications directly related to job function:
* Billing
* Portfolio management
* Others.
Integration of these applications consists of two major themes: the appearance of the applications
and the ability of the applications to exchange of data.

Common UI and Application Integration

Microsoft Windows has standardized the user interface for a large number of applications by
providing standardization at the following levels:
 Overall visual look and feel of the application windows
 Menus
 Dialog Boxes
 Buttons
 Help Features
 Scroll Bars
 ool Bars
 File open and save etc

This standardization level makes it easier for the user to interact with applications designed
for the Microsoft Windows operational environment. Standardization is being provided for Object
Linking and Embedding (OLE), Dynamic Data Exchange (DOE), and the Remote Procedure Call
(RPC).

Data Exchange
The Microsoft Windows Clipboard allows exchanging data in any format. It can be used to
exchange multimedia objects also. We can cut and copy a multimedia objects in one document and
pasting in another. These documents can be opened under different applications.The windows
clipboard allows the following formats to be stored:
 Text
 Bitrnap
 Image
 Sound
 Video (AVI format).
Distributed Data Access
If all applications required for a compound object can access the subobjects that they manipulate,
then only application integration succeeds.
Fully distributed data access implies that any application at any client workstation in the enterprise-
wide WAN must be able to access any data object as if it were local. The underlying data
management software should provide transport mechanisms to achieve transparence for the
application.
Hypermedia Application Design
Hypermedia applicati'ons are applications consisting of compound objects that include the
multimedia objects. An authoring applicationn may use existing multimedIa objects or call upon a
media editor to CD create new object.
Structuring the Information
A good information structure should consist the following modeling primitives:
.:. Object types and object hierarchies.
.:. Object representations.
.:. Object connections.
.:. Derived connections and representations.

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The goal of information Structuring is to identify the information objects and to develop an
information model to define the relationships among these objects.
Object Types and Object Hierarchies
Object types are related with various attributes and representations of the objects. The nature of the
information structure determines the functions that can be performed on that information set. The
object hierarchy defines a contained-in relationship between objects. The manner in which this
hierarchy is approached depends on whether the document is being created or played back.Users
need the ability to search for an object knowing very little about the object. Hypermedia application
design should allow for such searches.
The user interface with the application depends on the design of the application, particularly the
navigation options provided for the user.

Object representations
Multimedia objects have a variety of different object representations. A hypermedia object is a
compound object, consists of s~ information elements, including data, text, image, and video
Since each of these multimedia objects may have its own sub objects, the design must consider the
representation of objects.
An object representation may require controls that allow the user to alter the rendering of the object
dynamically. The controls required for each object representation must be specified with the object.
Object connection
In the relational model, the connections are achieved through joins, and in the object oriented
models, through pointers hidden inside objects. Some means of describing explicit connections is
required for hypermedia design to define the relationships among objects more clearly and to help
in establishing the navigation.
Derived Connections and Representations
Modeling of a hypermedia system should attempt to take derived objects into consideration for
establishing connection guidelines.

5.1.3 User Interface Design

Multimedia applications contain user interface design. There are four kinds of user interface
development tools. They are
1. Media editors
2. An authoring application
3. Hypermedia object creation
4. Multimedia object locator and browser
A media editor is an application responsible of the creation and editing of a specific multimedia
object such as an image, voice, or Video object. Any application that allows the user to edit a
multimedia object contains a media editor. Whether the object is text, ~voice, or full-motion video,
the basic functions provided by the editor are the same: create, delete, cut, copy, paste, move, and

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merge.
Navigation through the application
Navigation refers to the sequence in which the application progresses and objects are created,
searched and used.
Naviation can be of three modes:
(i) Direct: It is completely predefined. In this case, the user needs to know what to expect with
successive navigation actions.
Free-form mode: In this mode~ the user determines the next sequence of actions.
Browse mode: In this mode, the user does not know the precise question and wnats to get general
information about a particular topic. It is a very common mode in application based on large
volumes of non-symbolic data. This mode allows a user to explore the databases to support the
hypothesis.
5.1.3.1 Designing user Interfaces
User Interface should be designed by structured following design guidelines as
follows: 1.Planning the overall structure of the application
2. Planning the content of the application
3.Planning the interactive behavior
4.Planning the look and feel of the application

A good user interface must be efficient and intuitive by most users.

The interactive behaviour of the application determines how the User interacts with the application.
A number of issues are determined at this level.
They are
Data entry dialog boxes
Application-designed sequence of operations depicted by graying or enabling specific menu
items. Context-sensitive operation of buttons
Active icons that perform ad hoc tasks(adhoc means created for particular purpose only)

A look and feel of the

application depends on a
combination of the metaphor
being used to simulate real-life
interfaces, Windows
guidelines, ease of use, and
aesthetic appeal.
Special Metaphors for
Multimedia Applications
In this section let us look at a
few key multimedia user
interface metaphors.
The organizer metaphor
One must begin to associate
the concept of embedding
multimedia object in the
appointment diary or notepad
to get obvious view of the
multimedia aspects of the
organizer.
Other use of multimedia object in an organizer is to associate maps or voice mail directions with
addresses in address books.
The lotus organizer was the first to use a screen representation of the office diary type organizer

Telephone Metaphor: The role of the telephone was changed b the advent of voice mail system.

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Voice mail servers convert the analog voice and store it in digital form. With the standards for voice
~ail file formats and digital storage of sound for computer. Now, computer system is used to
manage the phone system. The two essential components of a phone system are speakers and
microphones. They are included in most personal computers.
Figure 8.8 shows how a telephone can be created on a screen to make it a good user interface
The telephone keypad on the screen allows using the interface just as a telephone keypad is used.
Push buttons in dialog boxes and function selections in memos duplicate the function provided by
the keypad. Push buttons, radio buttons, list boxes, and data entry fields and menu selections allow
a range of functionality than can be achieved by the telephone.

Aural User Interface: A Aural user interface allows computer systems to accept speech as direct
input and provide an oral response to the user actions. Speech enabling is an important feature in
this UI. To design AUI system first, we have to create an aural desk top which substitutes voice and
ear for the keyboard and display and be able to mix and match them Aural cues should be able to
represent icons, voice, menus and the windows of graphical user interface.
AUl design involves human perception, cagnitive science and psycho-acoutic theory. AUI systems
learn systems to perform routine functions without user's feedback. An AUI must be temporal and
use time based metaphors.
AUI has to address the following issues
1. Recent user memory
2. Attention span
3. Rhythms
4. Quick return to missed oral cues
The VCR metaphor: The User interface metaphor for VCR is to draw a TV on screen and provide
live buttons on it for selecting channels, increasing sound volume and changing channel.User
interface for functions suchas video capture, channel play, and stored video playback is to emulate
the camera, television and VCR on screen Fi5.6 shows all functions of typical video camera when it
is in a video capture mode.
Audio/Video Indexing Functions
Index marking allowed users to mark the location on tape in the case of both audio and video to
which they may wish to fast forward are rewind.
Other form of index marking is time based. In his form the tape counter shows playtime in
hours, minutes, and secondsfrom the time the counter was reset.
Three paradigms for indexing audio and video tapes are
Counter identify tape locations, and the user maintains index listingSpecial events are used as index
markersUsers can specify locations for index markings and the system maintains the index.Indexing
is useful only if the video is stored. Unless live video is stored, indexing information is lost since
the video cannot be repeated.In most systems where video is stored, the sound and video streams
are decompressed and managed separately, so synchronization for playback is important. The

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indexing information n\must be stored on apermanent basis.

5.1.4 Information Access:

Access structure defines the way objects can be accessed and how navigation takes place through
the information objects.
The common forms of navigations for information access are:
Direct: Direct information accessis completely predefined. User must have knowledge about the
object that need to be accessed. That information includes object representations in a compound
object. Indexed: Index access abstracts the real object from the access to the object. If the object ID
of the object is an index entry that resolves to a filename on a specific server and disk partition,
then the information access mechanism is an indexed mechanism. \
Random Selection: In this fonn, the user can pick one of several possible items. The items need
not arranged in any logical sequence; and they need not to be displayed sequentially. The user need
not have much knowledge about the infonnation. They must browse through the infornlation.
Path selection or Guided tour: In guided tour, the application guides the user through a
predefined path acrosS a number of objects and operations. The user may pause to examine the
objects at any stage, but the overall access is controlled by the application. Guided tours can also be
used for operations such as controlling the timing for discrete media, such as slide show. It can be
used for control a sound track or a video clip.
Browsing: It is useful when the user does not have much knowledge about the object to access it
directly.

5.1.5 Object Display Playback Issues:

User expects some common features apart from basic functions for authoring systems. And
to provide users with same special control on the display/ playback of these objects, designer have
to address some of these issues for image, audio and video objects.
Image Display Issues Scaling: Image scaling is performed on the fly after decompressio The
image is scaled to fit in an application defined window at t:' full pixel rate for the window.The
image may be scaled by using factors. For eg: for the window 3600 x 4400 pixels can be scaled by
a factor of 6 x 10 ie.60 x 440 (60 times).
Zooming: Zooming allows the user to see more detail for a specific area of the image. Users can
zoom by defining a zoom factor (eg: 2: 1,5: 1 or 10: 1). These are setup as preselected zoom values.
Rubber banding: This is another form of zooming. In this case, the user uses a mouse to define
two comers of the rectangle. The selected area can be copied to the clipboard, cut, moved or
zoomed.
Panning: If the image window is unable to display the full image at the ·selected resolution for
display. The image can be panned left to right or right to left as wellas top to bottom or bottom to
top. Panning is useful for finding detail that is not visible in the full image.
Audio Quality: Audio files are stored in one of a number of formats, including WAVE and A VI.
Playing back audio requires that the audio file server be capable of playing back data at the rate of
480 kbytes/min uncompressed or 48 kbytes/min for compressed 8 bit sound or 96 kbytes/min for 16
bit sound.
The calculation is based on an 8 MHz sampling rate and ADCPM compression with an estimated
compression ratio. 32 bit audio will need to be supported to get concert hall quality in stored audio.
Audio files can be very long. A 20 minute audio clip is over 1 MB long. When played back from
the server, it must be transferred completely in one burst or in a controlled manner.

Special features for video playback: Before seeing the features of video playback let us learn
what is isochronous playback. The playback at a constant rate to ensure proper cadence (the rise
and fall in pitch of a person's voice) is known as isochronous playback. But isochronous playback is
more complex With video than It is for sound. .
If video consists of multiple clips of video and multiple soundtracks being retrieved from different
servers and combined for playback by accurately synchronizing them, the problem becomes more

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complex.To achieve isochronous playback, most video storage systems

use frame interleaving concepts. Video Frame Interleaving: Frame interleaving defines the structure
o;the video file in terms of the layout of sound and video components.

Programmed Degradation: When the client workstation is unable to keep up with the incoming
data, programmed degradation occurs. Most video servers are designed to transfer data from storage
to the client at constant rates. The video server reads the file from storage, separate the sound and
video components, and feeds them as a seperate streams over the network to the client workstations.
Unless specified by the user, the video server defaults to favoring sound and degrades video
playback by dropping frames. So, sound can be heard on a constant basis. But the video loses its
smooth motion and starts looking shaky. Because intermediate frames are not seen.
The user can force the ratio of sound to video degradation by changing the interleaving factor for
playback; ie the video server holds back sound until the required video frames are transferred. This
problem becomes more complex when multiple streams of video and audio are being played back
from multiple source servers. .
Scene change Frame Detection: The scene we see changes every few seconds or minutes and it
replaced by a new image. Even within the same scene, there may be a constant motion of some
objects in a scene.
Reason for scene change detection: Automating scene change detection is very useful for
browsing through very large video clips to find the exact frame sequence of interest. Spontaneous
scene change detection provides an automatic indexing mechanism that can be very useful in
browsing. A user can scan a complete video clip very rapidly if the key frame for each new scene is
displayed in an iconic (poster frame) form in a slide sorter type display. The user can then click on a
specific icon to see a particular scene. This saves the user a significant amount of time and effort
and reduces resource load by decompressing and displaying only the specific scene of interest rather
than the entire video.
Scene change detection is of real advantage if it can be performed without decompressing the video
object. Let us take a closer-look at potential techniques that can be employed for this purpose.
Techniques:
(i) Histogram Generation: Within a scene, the histogram changes as the subject of the scene
mover. For example, if a person is running and the camera pans the scene, a large part of the scene
is duplicated with a little shift. But if the scene changes from a field to a room, the histogram
changes quite substantially. That is, when a scene cuts over to a new scene, the histogram changes
rapidly. Normal histograms require decompressing the video for the successive scenes to allow the
optical flow of pixels to be plotted on a histogram. The foot that the video has to be decompressed
does help in that the user can jump from one scene to the next. However, to show a slide sorter view
requires the entire video to be decompressed. So this solution does not really of the job.
Since MPEG and JPEG encoded video uses DCT coefficients, DCT quantization analysis on
uncompressed video or Audio provides the best alternatives for scene change detection without
decompressing video
The efficiency can be managed by determining the frame interval for checks and by deciding on the
regions within the frame that are being checked. A new cut in a scene or a scene change can be
detected by concentrating on a very small portion of the frame
The scene change detection technology as is the case with video compression devices as well as
devices that can process compressed video, the implementations of scene change detection can be
significantly enhanced.
Video scaling, Panning and Zooming:
Scaling:
Scaling is a feature since users are used in changing window sizes. When the size of the video
window is changed, scaling take place.
Panning: Panning allows the user to move to other parts of the window. Panning is useful
incombination with zooming. Only if the video is being displayed at full resolution and the video
window is not capable of displaying the entire window then panning is useful. Therfore panning is

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useful only for video captured using very high resolution cameras.
Zooming:
Zooming implies that the stored number of pixels is greater than the number that can be displayed
in the video window . In that case, a video scaled to show the complete image in the video window
can be paused and an area selected to be shown in a higher resolution within the same video
window. The video can be played again from that point either in the zoomed mode or in scaled to
fit window mode.
Three Dimensional Object Display and VR(Virtual Reality)
Number of 3D effects are used in home entertainment a advanced systems used for specialized
applications to achieve find Ine results.
Let us review the approaches in use to determine the impact 0 multimedia display system design
due to these advanced systems.
Planar Imaging Technique: The planar imaging technique, used in computer-aided tomography
(CAT Scan) systems, displays a twodimensional [2D] cut of X-ray images through
multidimensional data specialized display techniques try to project a 3D image constructed from the
2D data. An important design issue is the volume of data being displayed (based on the image
resolution and sampling rate) and the rate at which 3D renderings need to be constructed to ensure a
proper time sequence for the changes in the data.
Computed tomography has a high range of pixel density and can be used for a variety of
applications. Magnetic resonance imaging, on the other hand, is not as fast, nor does it provide as
high a pixel density as CT. Ultrasound is the third technique used for 3D imaging in the medical
and other fields. .

5.2 HYPER MEDIA MESSAGING

Messaging is one of the major multimedia applications. Messaging started out as a simple text-
based electronic mail application. Multimedia components have made messaging nuch more
complex.
We see how these components are added to messages.
5.2.1 Mobile Messaging
Mobile messaging represents a major new dimension in the users interaction with the messaging
system. With the emergence of remote access from users using personal digital assistants and
notebook computers, made possible by wireless communications developments supporting wide
ranging access using wireless modems and cellular telephone links, mobile messaging has
significantly influence messaging paradigms.
Handheld and desktop devices play an important growth area for messaging, require
complementary back-end services to effectively manage communications for large organizations.
Hypermedia messaging is not restricted to the desktops; it is increasingly being used on the road
through mobile communications in metaphors very different from the traditional desktop
metaphors.

5.2.2 Hypermedia Message Components

A hypermedia message may be a simple message in the form of text with an embedded graphics,
sound track, or video clip, or it may be the result of analysis of material based books, CD ROMs,
and other on-line applications. An authoring sequence for a message based on such analysis may
consist of the following components.
1. The user may have watched some video presentation on the material and may want to attach
a part of that clip in the message. While watching it, the user marks possible quotes and
saves an annotated copy.
2. Some pages of the book are scanned as images. The images provide an illustration or a
clearer analysis of the topic
3. The user writes the text of the message using a word processor. The text summarizes the
highlights of the analysis and presents conclusions.
These three components must be combined in a message using an authoring tool provided by the

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messaging system. The messaging system must prompt the user to enter the name of the addressee
forthe message.
The message system looks up the name in an online directory and convert it to an electronic
addresses well as routing information before sending the message. The user is now ready to
compose the message. The first step is to copy the word processed text report prepared in step 3
above in the body area of the message or use the text editor provided by the messaging system. The
user then marks the spots where the images are referenced and uses the link and embed facilitites of
the authoring tool to link in references to the images. The user also marks one or more spots for
video clips and again uses the link and embed facilities to add the video clips to the message.When
the message is fully composed, the user signs it (electronic signature) and mails to the message to
the addressee (recipient). The addressing system must ensure that the images and video clips
referenced in the message are also transferred to a server "local' to the recipient.
Text Messages
In earlier days, messaging systems used a limited subset of plain ASCII text. Later, messaging
systems were designed to allow users to communicate using short messages. Then, new messaging
standards have added on new capabilities to simple messages. They provide various classes of
service and delivery reports.

Typical Electronic mail message

Other capabilities of messaging systems includ~ a name and address directory of all users
accessible to the messaging system.
Rich-Text Messages
Microsoft defined a standard for exporting and importing text data that included character set, font
table, section and paragraph formatting, document formatting, and color information-called Rich
Text Format (RTF), this standard is used for storage as well as Import and export of text files across
a variety of word-processing and messaging systems.
When sections of this document are cut and pasted into another application, the font and formatting
information is .retained. This allows the target application to display the text m the nearest
equivalent fonts and formats.
Rich-text messages based on the RTF formats provide the capability to create messages in one word
processor and edit in another at the recipient end. Most messaging systems provIde richtext
capability for the field of a message.

Voice Messages
Voice mail systems answer telephones using recorded messages and direct the caller through a
sequence of touch tone key operations until the caller is connected to the desired party or is able to
leave a recorded message.
Audio' (Music)
The Musical Instrument Digital interface (MIDI) was developed initially by the music industry to
allow computer control of and music recordings from musical instruments such as digital pianos
and electric keyboards. MIDI interfaces are now being used for a variety of peripherals, including
digital pianos, digital organs, video games with high-fidelity sound output, and business
presentations.
Full-Motion Video Management
Use of full-motion video for information repositories and memos are more informative. More
information can be 'conveyed and explained in a short full-motion video clip than can be conveyed
In a long text document. Because a picture is equivalent to thousand words.
Full Motion video Authoring System
An authoring system is an important component of a multimedia messaging system. A good
authoring system must provide a number of tools for the creation and editing of multimedia objects.
The subset of tools that are necessary are listed below:
1. A video capture program - to allow fast and simple capture of digital video from analog
sources such as a video camera or a video tape. .

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2. Compression and decompression Interfaces for compressing the captured video as it is being
captured.
3. A video editor with the ability to decompress, combine, edit, and compress digital video
clips.
4. Video indexing and annotating software for marking sections of a videoclip and recording
annotations.
Identifying and indexing video clips for storage.
Full-Motion Video Playback Systems
The playback system allows the recipient to detach the embedded vIdeo reference object, Interpret
its contents and retrieve the actual video clip from a specialized video server and launch the
Playback application. A number of factors are involved in playing back the video correctly.
They are:
1. How the compression format used for the storage of the video clip relates to the available
hardware and software facilities for decompression.
2. Resolution of the screen and the system facilites available for managing display windows.
The display resolution may be higher or lower than the resolution of the source of the video
clip. 3.The CPU processing power and the expected level of degradation as well as
managing the degraded output on the fly.
4.Ability to determine hardware and software facilities of the recipient's system, and
adjusting playback, parameters to provide the best resolution and perfonnance on playback.
The three main technologies for playing full motion video are microsoft's video for
windows: Apple's Quicktime, and Intel's Indeo.
Video for Windows (VFW): It is the most common environment for multimedia messaging.
VFW provides capture, edit, and playback tools for full-motion video. The tools provided by VFW
are: The VidCap tool, designed for fast digital video capture.
The VidEdit tool designed for decompression, edition, and compressing full-motion digital video.
The VFW playback tool.
The VFW architecture uses OLE. With the development of DDE and OLE, Microsoft introduced in
windows the capability to link or multimedia objects in a standardized manner. Hence variety
:;windows based applications can interact with them. We can add full-motion video to any
windows-based application with the help of VFW. The VFW playback tool is designed to use a
number of codecs (software encoder/decoders) for decompressing and playing video files. The
default is for A VI files.
Apple's QuickTime
An Apple QuickTime product is also an integrated system for playing back video files. The
QuickTime product supports four compression methodologies.
Intel's Indeo
Indeo is a digital video recording format. It is a software technology that reduces the size of un
compressed video files through successive compression methodologies, including YUV sub
sampling, vector quantization, Huffman's run-length encoding, and variable content encoding.
Indeo technology is designed to be scalable for playing back video; It determines the hardware
available and optimizes playback for the hardware by controlling the frame rate. The compressed
file must be decompressed for playback. The Indeo technology decompresses the video file
dynamically in real time for playback. Number of operating systems provide Indeo technology as
standard feature and with other software products (eg. VFW).

5.2.3Hypermedia Linking and Embedding

Linking and embedding are two methods for associating multimedia objects with documents.
This topic deals with
 Linking as in hypertext applications. Hypertext system associate keywordsin a document
with other document.
 Linking multimedia objects stored separately from the document and the link provides a
pointer to its storage.

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 Linking and embedding in a context specific to Microsoft Object linking and Embedding.
Linking in hypertext documents
Hypertext documents are indexed to locate keywords within the text component of the
hypermedia document. An extension of this capability is to locate information within the linked
component.
There are two types of links passive links and active links
Active Links- performs functions on theoir own based on readers customization. Active links
are more intelligent and may use artificial intelligence technologies to monitor the nature of
tasks performed by the user.
Passive Links- allow associating one document with another in a number of ways including the
author to name the subject of a link and access it based on the content.
Linking and Embedding:
Linking and embedding are two ways of associating multimedia objectswith a hypermedia
document or a database record. Let us discuss it in detail.
Linking Objects
When an object is linked, the source data object, called the link source, continues to stay whenever
it was at the time the link was created. This may be at the object server where it was created, or
where it has been copied.
Only reference is required in the hypermedia document. The' reference is also known as link. This
link reference includes information about the multimedia object storage, its presentation parameters,
and the server application that is needed to dIsplay/play or edit it. When this document is copied,
the link reference is transferred. But the actual multimedia document remains in its original
location. A linked object is not a part of the hypermedia document and it does not takeup storage
space within the hypermedia document. If the creator, or authorised user edits the original stored
multimedia object, subsequent calls to the linked object bring the copy.
Embedded Objects
If a copy of the object is physically stored in the hypermedia document, then'the multimedia object
:3 said to be embedded. Any changes to the original copy of t4at object are not reflected in the
embedded copy. When the hypermedia document is copied, the multimedia object is transferred
with it to the new locations.Graphics and images can be inserted in a rich-text document on
embedded using such techniques as OLE Voice and audio components can be included in a text
message; or they can be part of a full voice-recorded message that has embedded text and other
components.

5.4 Creating Hypermedia Messages

Hypermedia message is a complex collection of a variety of objects.
It is an integrated message consisting of text, rich text, binary files, images, bitmaps. voice and
sound, and full motion video. Creating of a hypermedia message requires some preparation. A
hypermedia report is more complex. It requires the following steps:
1. Planning
2. Creating each component
3. Integrating components
The planning phase for preparing the hypermedia message consists of determining the various
sources of input. These can include any of the following:
1. A text report prepared in a word-processing system.
2. A spreadsheet in a spreadsheet program.
3. Some diagrams from a graphics program. 4 .. Images of documents.
4. Sound dips.
5. Video clips.
We should determine which components are required for the message, in what sequence should
they be, and where in the text report they should be referenced. The length of each component
should be determined. Careful planning is necessary to ensure that the capabilities of the messaging
system are used appropriately.

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Each component must be created using the authoring tool provided by the application used for
creating it. All applications Involved in creating various components must have common formats to
allow combining these various components. The various components must be authored, reviewed,
and edited as needed, checked for smooth flow when the user launches an embedded object and
stored in the final format in which it will become a part of the hyperrnedia message. The final step
in this process is mailing the hypermedia message.

5.5 Integrated Multimedia Message Standards

Let us review some of the Integrated Multimedia MessageStandards in detail.
Vendor Independent Messaging (VIM)
VIM interface is designed to facilitate messaging between VIM. enabled electronic mail systems as
well as other applications. The VIM interface makes mail and messages services available through
a well defined interface.
A messaging service enables its clients to communicate with each other in a store-and-forward
manner. VIM-aware applications may also use one-or-more address books.
Address books are used to store information about users, groups, applications, and so on.
VIM Messages:
VIM defines messaging as a stored-and-forward method of application-to-application all program-
to-program data exchange. The objects transported by a messaging system are caIled messages. The
message, along with the address is sent to the messaging system. The messaging system providing
VIM services accept the responsibility for routing and delivering the message to the message
container of the recipient.
Message Definition:
Each message has a message type. The message type defines the syntax of the message and the type
of information that can be contained in the message.
A VIM message consists of message header. It may contain one or more message items. The
message header consists of header attributes: recipient address, originator address, time/date prior
A message item is a block of arbitrary-sized (means any size) data of a defined type. The contents
of the data block are defined by the data-item type.
The actual items in a message and its syntax and semantics are defined by the message type. The
message may also contain file attachments. VIM allows the nesting of messages; means one
message may be enclosed in another message.A VIM message can be digitally signed so that we
can ensure that the message 'received is without any modification during the transit.
Mail Message: It is a message of a well-defmed type that must include a message header and may
include note parts, attachments, and other application-defined components. End users can see their
mail messages through their mail programs.
Message Delivery: If message is delivered successfully, a delivery report is generated and send to
the sender of the message if the sender requested the delivery report. If a message is not delivered, a
non-delivered report is sent to the sender.
A message that delivered will be in a message container will be marked as 'unread', until the
recipient open and read it.
Message Container: Multiple users or applications can access one message container. Each
message in a message container has a reference number associated with it for as long as the
message remains stored in the message container.
VIM Services: The VIM interface provides a number of services for creating and mailing a
message. Some of them are:
.:. Electronic message composition and submission.
.:. Electronic message sending and receiving.
.:. Message extraction from mail system.
.:. Address book services.
The VIM interface defines two calls for message sending. The SMISendDocuments() call may be
used by applications such as spread sheets and word processing to send spreadsheets or word
processing documents to one or more users.

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The VIM interface also provides more extensive support for programmers to develop mail-aware
and messaging applications that use application specific messages containing text graphic, images,
audio , video and file attachenments.
MAPI Support (Multimedia Application Programmable Interface)
MAPI provides a layer of functionality between applications and underlying messaging systems.
The primary goals of MAPI are: Separate client applications from the underlying messaging
services. Make basic mail enabling a standard feature for all applic·ations. Support message-reliant
workgroup applications.
MAPI Architecture: MAPI Architecture provides two perspectives (i) A client API
(ii) A service provider interface. The Client API provides the link between the client applications
andMAPI. The service provider interface links MAPI to the messaging system.
The two interfaces combine to provide an open architecture such that any messaging application can
use any messaging service that has a MAPI driver. MAPI drivers are provided by microsoft or third
party developers.
Telephony API (TAPI)
TAPI standard has been defined by Microsoft and Intel. The telephone can be used for reading e-
mail as well as for entering e-mail messages remotely.
X 400 Message Handling Service
The CCITT X 400 series recommendations define the OSI message handling system, (MHS).
The MHS describes a functional model that provides end users the ability t6 send and receive
electronic messages. In the as I, an end user is an originator. He composes and sends messages.
Receiver is the one who receives messages. A User Agent (UA) is an entity that provides the end
user function for composing and sending messages and for delivering messages. Most user agent
implementations provide storage of mail, sorting directories, and forwarding.
A Message Transfer Agent (MTA) forwards messages from the originator UA to another MT A. A
number of MTAs are combine to form Message transfer System (MTS).
The MTAs in an MTS provide message routing services at intermediate nodes in a WAN.
Figure below shows the overall X 400 architecture and the relationships between the components.

X·500 Directory System Standards

The X·500 is the joint International Standard Organization
CCITT standard for a distributed directory system that lets users store information such as addresses

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and databases on a local server and easily query, exchange, and update that information in an
interoperable networked environment.
The X 500 directory structure is described in the CCITT standard known as Data Communications
Network Directory, Recommendations X·500-X·521, 1988.
5 X·500 Directory System Architecture
Directory System Agents carryout updates and management operations. X ·500 defines a structured
information model, an objectoriented model and database schema.
The X ·500 architecture is based on a number of models, as follow'>:
The information model: It specifies the contents of directory entries, how they are identified, and
the way in which they are organized to form the directory information base.
The Directory model: It describes the directory and its users, the functional model for directory
operation, and the organization of the directory. .
The security model: It specifies the way in which the contents of the directory are protected from
unauthorised access and authentication methods for updates.
The X 500 directory system is designed to be capable of spanning national and corporate
boundaries.
X 500 Directory System Components: All information in an X 500 database is organized as
entries in the Directory-Information Base(DlB). The directory system provides agents to manipulate
entries in the DIB.
X 500 directories consist of the following basic components:
1. Diretory Information Base (DIB); The DIB contains information about users, applications,
resources and the configuration of the directory that enables servers to locate one another.

2. Directory User Agents (DUA): A DUA issues inquiry and update requests, and accesses
directory information through the directory access protocol.

3. Directory Service Agents (DSAs): DSAs cooperate with one another to resolve user requests
over a distributed network. They interact through a specialized protocol called a directory system
protocol.

5.6 Integrated Document Management

It is for managing integrated documents.
Integrated document Management for Messaging Specialized messaging system such as Lotus
Notes provide Integrated document management for messaging. The user can attach embed or link a
variety of multimedia objects.
When document is forwarded to other users, all associated multimedia objects are also forwarded
and avaiiable to the new receivers of the forward message.
Integrated Document management for Messaging:
Specialized messaging systems such as Lotus Notes provide integrated document management for
messaging. This means the user can attach , embed, or link a variety of multimedia objects such as
graphics, images, audio and video.This also implies that when the document is forwarded to other
users all associated multimedia objects are also forwarded and available to the new recipients.
Multimedia Object Server and Mail Server Interactions:
The mail server is used to store i'lll e-mail messages. It consists of a file server with mail files for
each user recipient. This file server act as a mail box.
All received mail is dropped in the user's mail file. The user can review or delete these mails. When
mail messages include references to multimedia objects, mail file contains only link information.

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5.7 DISTRIBUTED MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS

5.7.1.Components of a Distributed multimedia systems:
If the multimedia systems are supported by multiuser system, then we call those multimedia
systems as distributed multimedia systems.
A multi user system designed to support multimedia applications for a large number of users
consists of a number of system components. A typical multimedia application environment consists
of the following components:
1. Application software.
2. Container object store.
3. Image and still video store.
4. Audio and video component store.
5. Object directory service agent.
6. component service agent.
7. User interface and service agent.
8. Networks (LAN and WAN).
Application Software
The application software perfom1s a number of tasks related to a specific business process. A
business process consists ofa series of actions that may be performed by one or more users.
The basic tasks combined to form an application include the following:
(1) Object Selection - The user selects a database record or a hypermedia document from a file
system, database management system, or document server.
(2) Object Retrieval- The application ret:ieves the base object.
(3) Object Component Display - Some document components are displayed automatically when
the user moves the pointer to the field or button associated with the multimedia object.
(4) User Initiated Display - Some document components require user action before
playback/display.
(5) Object Display Management and Editing: Component selection may invoke a component
control subapplication which allows a user to control playback or edit the component object.
Document store
A document store is necessary for application that requires storage oflarge volume of documents.
The following describes some characteristics of document stores.
1. Primary Document Storage: A file systems or database that contains primary document objects
(container objects). Other attached or embedded documents and multimedia objects may be stored
in the document server along with the container object.
2. Linked Object Storage: Embedded components, such as text and formatting information, and
linked information, and linked components, such as pointers to image, audio, and video.
Components contained in a document, may be stored on separate servers.
3. Linked Object Management: Link information contains the name of the component, service
class or type, general attributes such as size, duration of play for isochronous objects and hardware,
and software requirements for rendering.
Image and still video store
An image and still video is a database system optimized for storage of images. Most systems
employ optical disk libraries. Optical disk libraries consist of multiple optical disk platters that are
played back by automatically loading the appropriate platter in the drive under device driver
control.
The characteristics of image and still video stores are as follows:
(i) Compressed information (ii) Multi-image documents
(iii) Related annotations (iv) Large volumes
(v) Migration between high-volume such as an optical disk library and high-speed media
such as magnetic cache storages(vi) Shared access: The server software managing the server has to
be able to manage the different requirements.

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Audio and video Full motion video store

Audio and Video objects are isochronous. The following lists some characteristIcs of audio and
full-motion video object stores:
(i) Large-capacity file system: A compressed video object can be as large as six to ten M
bytes for one minute of video playback.
(ii) Temporary or permanent Storage: Video objects may be stored temporarily on client
workstations, servers Providing disk caches, and multiple audio or video object servers.
(iii) Migration to high volume/lower-cost media: migration and management of online
storage are much of greater importance and more complex than of images.
(iv) Playback isochronocity: Playing back a video object requires consistent speed without
breaks. Multiple shared access objects being played back in a stream mode must be
accessible by other users.
Object Directory Service Agent
The directory service agent is a distributed service that providea directory of all multimedia objects
on the server tracked by that element of the directoryy service agent.
The following describes various services provided by a directory service Agent.
(1) Directory Service: It lists all multimedia objects by class and server location.
(2) Object Assignment: The directory service agent assigns unique identification to each
multimedia object.
(3) Object Status Management: The directory service must track the current usage status of
each object.
(5) Directory Service Domains: The directory service should be modular to allow setting up
Directory Service Server Elements: Each multimedia object server must have directory
service element that reside on either server or some other resources.
(6) Network Access: The directory service agent must be accessible from any workstation
on the network.

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5.7.2 Distributed client server operation

The agents so far we have discussed combine to form a distributed client-server system for
multimedia applications. Multimedia applications require functionality beyond the traditional client
server architecture.
Most client-server systems were designed to connect a client across a network to a server
that provided database functions. In this case, the client-server link was firmly established over the
network. There was only one copy of the object on the specified server. With the development of
distributed work group computing, the picture has changed for the clients and servers. Actually in
this case, there is a provision of custom views in large databases. The advantage of several custom
views is the decoupling between the physical data and user.
The physical organization of the data can be changed without affecting the conceptual schema by
changing the distributed data dictionary and the distributed data repository.

Clients in Distributed Work Group Computing

Clients in distributed workgroup computing are the end users with workstations running
multimedia applications. The client systems interact with the data servers in any of the following
ways
1. Request specific textual data.

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2. Request specific multimedia objects embedded or linked in retrieved container objects.

3. Require activation of a rendering server application to display/ playback multimedia objects.
4. Create and store multimedia-objects on servers.
Request directory information. on locations of objects on servers

Servers in Distributed Workgroup Computing

Servers are storing data objects. Includes the following functions,
 storage for a variety of object classes,
 transfer objects on demand on clients.
 hierarchical storage for moving unused objects to optical disk lirbaries or optical tape
libraries.
 system Administration functions for backing up stored data.
 direct high-speed LAN and WAN server-to-server Tansport for copying multimedia objects.
Database Operation:
Most database systems are used to perform a basic set of operations these includes the following,
Search- find the object in record in response to a query.
Browse- not only retrieve attribute information about object but also render frames of the object
contents.
Retrieve- Retrieval functions are different for images , audio, video from symbolic text only
database because all three multimedia objects require the retrieved data to be processed by
specialized decompression engines before being rendered.
Create and Store- concerned with finding the tables in which the data has to be stored and
updating the distributed storage indexing information.
Update- A modification to the existing or previously stored data.
Middleware in Distributed Workgroup Computing
The middleware is like interface between back-end database and font-end clients.The role of
middleware is to link back end database to front end clients in a highly flexible and loosely
connected network model. Middleware provides the glue for dynamically redirecting client
requests to appropriate servers that are on-line.

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5.7.3Multimedia Object Servers:

The multimedia system consists of a number of information objects like text, binary files,image,voice and
full motion video. Many objects a re shared by a number of users. The information object must be stored on
network resourses accessible to all users who need to access them. The resources where information object
are stored so that they remain sharable across the network are called servers.
Types of Multimedia Servers
Each object type of multimedia systems would have its own dedicated server optimized for the type
of data maintained in the object. A network would consist of some combination of the following
types of servers.
(1) Data-processing servers RDBMSs and ODBMSs.
(2) Document database servers.
(3) Document imaging and still-video servers.
(4) Audio and voice mail servers.
(5) Full motion video server.
Data base processing servers are traditional database servers that contain alphanumeric data. In a
relational database, data fields are stored in columns in a table. In an object-oriented database these
fields become attributes ofthe object. The database serves the purpose of organizing the data and
providing rapid indexed access to it. The DBMS can interpret the contents of any column or
attribute for performing a search.
Mass Storage for Multimedia Servers
RAID(Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks)
In terms of redundancy,RAID provides a more cost effective solution than disk mirroring.
RAID is a means of increasing disk redundancy, RAID systems use multiple and potentially slower
disks to achieve the same task as a single expensive large capacity and high transfer rate disk.
In RAID high transfer rates are achieved by performing operations in parallel on multiple disks.
There are different levels of RAID available, namely disk striping(level 0), disk mirroring(level 1,

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Bit interleaving of date(level 2), Byte interleaving (level 3), sector interleaving(level 4), and block
interleaving(level 5)RAID technology is faster than rewritable optical disk and high data volumes
can be achieved with RAID. RAID technology provides high performance for disk reads for almost
all types of applications.
Write Once Read Many Optical Drives: (WORM)
WORM Optical drives provide very high volumes of storage for very low
cost. Some important characteristics of WORM optical disks are:
Optical drives tend to be slower than magnetic drives by a factor of three to four. .
WORM drives can write once only; typically 5-10% of disk capacity m left free to provide
for changes to existing information.
They are useful for recording informations that would not change very
much. They are virtually indestructible in normal office use and have
long shelf lives.
They an be used in optical disk libraries (Juke boxes). A Juke box may provide anywhere
from 50-100 disk platters with two or more drives.
These characteristics make optical disks ideal candidates for on-line document images
(which change very little once scanned and do not have an isochronous requirement) and
archived data.
Rewritable Optical Disks:
Rewritable optical drives are produced by using the technologies like magneto-optical. It has the
advantage ofrewritability over the WORM where rewritable is not possible. It can be used as
primary or secondary media for storage of large objects, which are then archieved. (Placed where
documents are preserved) on WORM disks.
If it is used as primary media, it should be accompanied by highspeed magnetic disk cache. This is
to achieve acceptable video performance.

Optical Disk Libraries:

Optical disk libraries are nothing but juke boxes. Work disks and rewritables can be used in optical
disk libraries to achieve very high volumes of near-lines storage. Optical disk libraries range from
desk top juke boxes with one 5' 1/4" drive and I O-slot optical disk stack for upto lOG Bytes of
stroage of large libraries using as many as four 12" drives with an 80-s10t optical disk stack for
upto terabytes of storage. The disadvantage of optical disk library is the time taken for a platter to
be loaded into a drive and span to operating speed.
Network Topologies for Multimedia Object Servers
A number of network topologies are available Network topology is the geometric arrangement of
nodes and cable links in a network. We still study three different approaches to setting up
multimedia servers.
(i) Centralized Multimedia Server: A centralized multimedia object server performs as a
central store for multimedia objects. All user requests for multimedia objects are forwarded by the
applications to the centralized server and are played back from this server. The centralized server
may serve a particular site of the corporation or the entire enterprise. Every multimedia object has a
unique identity across the enterprise and can be accessed from any workstation. The multimedia
object identifier is referenced in every data that embeds or links to it.
(ii) Dedicated Multimedia Servers: This is the approach where a video server is on a
separate dedicated segment In this approach, when a workstation dumps a large video, the other
servers on the networks are not affected. Provides high performance for all local operations. The
isochronocity of the objects is handled quite well in a dedicated mode.
Disadvantage of this approach is that the level of duplication of objects.
(iii) Distributed multimedia servers:
In this approach multimedia object servers are distributed in such a manner that they are placed in
starategic locations on different LANs.They are replicated on a programmed basis to provide
balanced serviceto all users.

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5.7.4Multiserver Network Topologies

To distribute the full functionality of multimedia network wide there are vareity of network
topologies available. ' The primary topologies are Traditional LANs (Ethernet or Token Ring
Extended LANs (Using network switching hubs bridges and routers). ' High speed LANs (ATM and
FDDI II). WANs (Including LANs, dial-up links-including ISDN T1 and T3 lines-etc.). ' I
Traditional LANS (Ethernet or Token Ring) Ethernet:
Ethernet: It is a Local Area Network hardware, communication, and cabling standard originally
developed by Xerox corporation that link up to 1024 nodes in a bus network. It is ahigh speed
standard using a baseband (single-channel) communication technique. It provides for a raw data
transfer rate of 10 Mbps, with actual throughput in the range of 2-3 Mbps. It support a number of
sessions in a mix of live video, audio electronic mail and so on.

The following figure shows the LAN topology for small work group.

Token Ring: It is a Local Area Network architecture that combines token passing with a hybrid
star/ring topology. It was developed by IBM. Token Ring Network uses a multistation Access unit
at its hub ..
Extended LANs:
Ethernet and token rings are extended to get high transfer rates. For extension they use hubs ,
bridges and routers. In extended LANs each segment operates at the normal LAN bandwidth.

Switching Hubs:
 These have fast switching and these network can support the requirements for full motion
video standard such as MPEG2.
 The important advantage of this approach is that workstation do not require additional LAN
hardwareif they are already connected to a LAN.
 The user workstation continues to operate on low-cost, low speed LAN connection.

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Bridges and Routers:

 Bridges and Routers transfer a packet of data from LAN segment to another LAN segment.
 Bridges are devices that interconnects local or remote networks no matter what higher level
protocols are involved.
 Bridges form a single logical network, centralized network administration.
 Routewrs are protocol dependent device that connects subnetworks to gether. It is useful in
breaking down a very large network into smaller subnetworks.
Switching and Routing Latency:
 Switching latency is defined as the time it takes a switching hub to interconnect one LAN
segment to another LAN segment.
 Routing delay is defined as the delay expirenced by a packet of data within the router.

ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)

It is a network architecture that divides messages into fixed size units (called cells) of small size and
that establishes a switched connection between the originating and receiving stations.
ATM appears to be a potential technology for multimedia systems for connecting object servers and
user workstations. ATM is actually a good candidate for two reasons: as a hub and spoke
teclmology, it adapts very well to the wiring closest paradign; and it allows workstations to operate
at speeds defined by the workstation. Figure below illustrates LAN topology using an A TM
Switching System.

FDDI II (Fiber Distributed Data Interface II)

It is a standard for creating highspeed computer networks that employ fiber-optic cable. FOOl II
operates exactly like token ring, . with one difference: FOOl employs two wires through all the
hosts in a network.

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FOOl II is a single media LAN and its full bandwidth supports all users.
FOOl II appears to be a very useful high-speed technology for connecting servers on an additional
separate network and providing the dedicated high bandwidth necessary for rapid transfer and
replication of information objects. Figure 5.13 shows a multiievel network based this approach.

WANS (Wide Area Network)

This includes LANs, dial up ISDN, T1 (1.544 Mbits/sec) and T3 (45.3 Mbits/sec) lines and regular
telephone dial-up lines. The two big issues here are:
• :. W ANs may have a mix of networking and communication protocols.
• :. WAN has a variety of speeds at which various parts of it where it communicates.
Protocol Layering: Layering helps to isolate the network from the . application. Layering of
protocols started with the release of the ISO model.
Protocol Layering:
Layerin helps to isolate the network from the application.Internet Packets can also be layered.
Consider the example where the source and destination are connected via ATM using a SONET
protocol at the media level.In the following figure each successive layertacks on its own
header.Each layer strips off its header before presenting the data to the next layer.

5.7.5Distributed Multimedia Databases:

A multimedia database consists of a member of different types of multimedia objects. These may
include relational database records, object-oriented databases with objects for alphanumeric

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attributes, and s:orage servers for multimedia objects such &s images, still video, audio, and full-
motion video. Itis feasible to include an image or a video object as a binary large object (BLOB) in
a relational database. It is also feasible to include such an object as an attribute in an object.

Database Organization for Multimedia Applications

Optical disk storage technology has reduced the cost of multimedia document storage by a
significant factor. Distributed architectures have opened the way for a variety of applications
distributed around a network accessing the safe database in an independent manner. The following
discussion addresses some key issues of the data organization for multimedia systems.

Data Independence: Flexible access to a variety of distributed databases for one or more
applications requires that the data be independent from the application so that future applications
can access the data without constraints related to a previous application. Important features of data
independent design are:

1. Storage design is independent of specific applications.

2. Explicit data definitions are independent of application programs.
3. Users need not know data formats or physical storage structures .
4. Integrity assurance is independent of application programs.
5. Recovery is independent of application programs .

Common Distributed Database Architecture: Employment of Common Distributed database

architectured is presented by the insulation of data from an application and distributed application
access.
Key features of this architecture are:
1. The ability for multiple independent data structures to co-exist in the system (multiple server
classes).
2. Uniform distributed access by clients.
3. Single point for recovery of each database erver.
4.Convenient data re-organization to suit requirements
5.Tunability and creation of object classes.
6.Expandibility.

Multiple Data Servers: A database server is a dedicated resource on a network accessible to a

number of apphcations, When a large number of users need to access the same resources, problem
arises
This problem is solved by setting up multiple data servers that have copies of the same resources,

Transaction management for Multimedia Systems

It is defined as the sequence of events that starts when a user makes a request to create, render, edit,
or print a hypermedia document. The transaction is complete when the user releases the hypermedia
document and stores back any edited versions or discards the copy in memory or local storage.
Use of object classes provides an excellent way for managing and tracking hypermedia documents,
Given that all components of a hypermedia document can be referenced within an object as
attributes, we can find a solution for the three-dimensional transaction management problem also in
the concept of objects.
Andleigh and Gretzinger expand on the basic concepts developed for the object request broker
(ORB) by the Object Management Group (OMG) and combine it with their transaction
management approach.

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Managing Hypermedia Records as Objects

Hypermedia records or documents are complex objects that contain multimedia information objects
within them, A hypermedia document can be stored in a document data base, as a BLOB in a
relational database, or in an object-oriented data base. A Hyper media document may contain
multimedia objects embedded in it as special fields. An number of may be included in an
embedded reference, they are,
 The object type for multimedia object (image, text, voice or video)
 A unique network-wide Object ID.
 A file name used for creation and by which it may be known.
 Size of the object.
 The application that created the object.
 Time and date of creation.
 The application or player that required to display or play it back.
 Related objects that must be at the same time for playback.
 Indexing information for indexed objects.
Object linking and embedding: OLE provides an object oriented framework for compound
documents. When a user double cliks or click on an icon for an embedded object, the application
that created the object starts, and allows the user to view andor the object .

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The difference between embedding and linking is given below,

Embedding Linking

Embedded causes the object to be stored with Linking allows it to be stored in specialized
the container document object server.

An embedded object is always available with A linked object depends on resolving the link
the container to a copy on an accessible server.
Editing an embedded copy affects only the Editing an Linked copy affects all the
embedded copy container documents that reference it

The following gfigure shows multiserver storage of multimedia objects linked in a compound
document.

5.7.6Managing Distributed Objects:

We see the nature of communication between servers and the managing of distributed objects.
Interserver communications: Object replication , object distribution, object recompilation and
object management and network resources are some of the design requirements that play a role in
defining interserver The following lists the types of communications that one server may make to
another server:
1. Obtain a token from an object name server for creating a new multimedia object; the object
is not accessible by others users until complete and released.
2. Search the object class directory for the current locations of that object and the least
expensive route for accessing it.
3. Perform a shared read lock on the object to ensure that it is n archived or purged while it is
being retrieved.
4. Replicate a copy of the object; update the object name server directory.
5. Copy an object for non-persistent use.
6. Test and set an exclusive lock on an object for editing purposes'
7. create new versions.
8. Pause the retrieval of an object to support a user action or to pace the retrieval to the speed
supported by the network.
9. A Sound server architecture is necessary for providing these services in a fully distributed
environment.

Object Server Architecture

Figure describes an object server architecture that can support multimedia applications for a large
number of users.

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The architecture describes the logical distribution of functions. The following lists the key elements
of this architecture:
 Multimedia Applications
 Common Object Management API.
 Object Request Broker.
 Object Name Server
 Object Directory Manager
 object Server
 Object Manager.
 Network Manager
 Object Data Store.
1. Any multimedia application designed to operate on the common object management API
can function in this architecture irrespective of whether the application is electronic mail,
hypermedia document management, a medical application or any other application.
2. The common object management API is a programming interface definition that provides
a library of functions the applications can call.
3. The common Broker Architecture API provides a uniform interface to all applications
and a standardized method for managing all information objects in a corporate network.
4. A common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) h been defined by a Object
Management Group. An object request broker performs the following functions:
(i) Object recompilation.
(ii) Playback control.
(iii) Format conversions.
5. The object name server provides an object directory service. That is a service to look up the
availability of a information object and the list of object servers on which it is located.
6. The object directory manager may exist in a distributed form within an object server. The
object directory manager updates the object directory when changes take place.
7. The object server is a logical subsystem in the network responsIble for storing and
retrieving objects on demand.
8. The object manager consists of a number of object classes that performs a number of
specialized services. They are: (i)Object retrieval. (ii) Replication(Ui) Migration. (iv)
Transaction and Lock Management. (v) User Preferen'ce. (vi) Versioning. (vii) System
Administration. (ix) Archival. (x) Purging. (xi) Class-Specific functions.

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9. A network manager is essential for all interactions that require communicating via the
network or transferring an object over the network.
10. An object data store is a term used for the actual storage media for specific classes of
objects. The data storage may be magnetic disk or optical disk or even array of disk or jke
boxes.
Identification method: Objects can be distinguished from one another in many potential ways.
Identification of objects in a persistent state is different from non-persistent objects. At the highest
level, persistent objects are distinguished by the class of objects. Andleigh and Gretzinger defined a
rule for unique object identification as follows:
RULE: An object must have an identifier that is unique in a time dimension as well as with location
such that it cannot be modified by any programmed action. An alternative approach is to divide the
network into domains and have a name server in each domain be responsible for assigning new
object IDs for all objects created in that domain. An object identification algorithm can be made
unique by combining several of the following components.
 Network domain name.
 Address and server ID of the name server node.
 A time stamp of creating time.-- An object class identifier
Object Directory services
A multimedia object directory manager is the name server for all multimedia objects in a LAN. It
has an entry for every multimedia object on all servers on the LAN, or in a domain if a LAN or
WAN is subdivided into domains. The object directory manager manages changes to the object
directory resulting from object manager actions.
Multimedia Object Retrieval
The multimedia object manager performs the functions of managing all requests from the
multimedia applications for retrieving existing multimedia objects or' storing new or edited
multimedia objects created by the user. In systems actively designed using an object request broker,
this request is channeled through the object request broker. Data structure maintained by the
multimedia object manager:
Database Replication Techniques In the simplest form of data management, the databases are set
up as duplicates of the databases. Database duplication ensures that the multiple copies are
identical.
There is an approach to allow each copy of the database to be modified as needed and to
synchronize them by comparing them and copying the changes to all other database copies on a
very frequent basis, this process is called replication.
Types of Database Replication: There are eight types of modes available. They are:

i)Round Robin replication- Each database copy replicates with the rest in a round robin manner.
ii).Manual replication- Requires the database administrator to type in a replication command at the
server and define the servers with which it should replicate.
iii) Scheduled replication- Each database copy is set on its own schedule for replication with each
other database copy.
(iv) Immediate replication- It is used where the multimedia object is expected to be required
almost immediately.
V) Replication-on-demand- This method replicates the object only when they are required by a
user logged into a specific database.
Vi) Predictive replication- It is a complex approach. The replication algorithm develops a
prediction criteriafor replicating selected objects.
Vii) Replication references- It is a different approach. A reference to a replicated copy of the
object is replicated.
Viii)No replication- This method is selected when the user needs to view the multimedia object
just once and knows definitely that there is no need for replication.

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The figure below shows the architecture for a distributed system providing replication service.

Object Migration Schemes

Optimizing Object Storage A number of techniques are available for optimizing data storage for
multimedia objects. Let us consider the three design approaches
1. Optimizing Servers by Object Type:
The mechanism for optimizing storage is to dedicate a server to a particular type of
object. The object server may ne designed to provide specialized services for specific object
classes related to rendering
2. Automatic Load Balancing: It can be achieved by programming the replication algorithm
to monitor use counts for each copy of a replicated object.
3. Versioned Object Storage:
The storage problem will be more complex if multiple vcrsions need to be stored. Hence, we
should follow the technique which is based on saving changes rather than storing whole new
objects. New versions of the object can be complex objects,.

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