[Book Cover]

Understanding Networked Multimedia: Applications and Technology, 1/e

Francois Fluckiger, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

Published October, 1995 by Prentice Hall Engineering/Science/Mathematics

Copyright 1996, 350 pp.
Cloth
ISBN 0-13-190992-4


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Summary

Exceptionally comprehensive — tutorial approach — this introduction/guide/reference explores the full panorama of networked multimedia applications and the underlying computer and networking technology. It focuses specifically on the theory and applications of networked multimedia digital systems in terms of several basic questions: What is multimedia? What can be done with multimedia today and in the future? How can it be done? Why does it have to be done that way?

Features


describes the existing and future networked multimedia applications.
distinguishes between people to people applications and people to systems applications.
analyzes and discusses networking and end–user systems issues.
discusses how existing and emerging data communication technologies can meet multimedia application requirements.
covers the existing local area network technology issues such as Ethernet, Token Ring, or FDDI, as well as the metropolitan and wide area networks including the Internet Packet technology, Frame Relay, the SMDS service and the Asynchronous Transfer Mode.
addresses the specific technology of data compression and coding — justification for compression, the basic principles, the most relevant techniques, and their respective performances.
describes the principles of algorithms such as MPEG.
analyzes the requirements placed by the various remote multimedia applications on the networks that have to support them.
describes for each type of application the quantitative requirements (such as bit rates or transit delay), functional features (such as multicasting capabilities), and qualitative requirements — e.g., tolerance to audio or visual distortions, as derived from the mechanisms of human perception.
includes requirements of broadcast TV and the future of high definition TV.
addresses a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
covers special Basic and In-Depth. topics in chapter appendices.
uses many analogies, examples, and figures.
contains a 500+ term glossary.


Table of Contents

    How to Use This Book.
    Frequently Asked Questions about Networked Multimedia.
I. SETTING THE SCENE.
    1. What Is Multimedia?
    Basics: Analog Signals to Represent Information.
    2. Integrating Digital Information.
    In-Depth: Digitization, Sampling, and Quantization.
    3. Digital Text, Graphics, Images, Video, Animation, Sound.
    Basics: Text in Computing. Basics: State of the Art in Speech Recognition.
    4. Introduction to the Enabling Technologies.
    5. Why Is Multimedia So Popular?
    Basics: What Are Technology Push and Market Pull? In-Depth: An Assessment of Certain Multimedia Fields. In-Depth: Elements of Multimedia Market Forecasts.
II. MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS.
    6. Taxonomy of Multimedia Applications.
    In-Depth: Other Taxonomies.
    7. Audio-Video Inter-Personal Applications.
    In-Depth: Comments on the Use of ISDN.
    8. Shared Workspace for CSCW.
    In-Depth: Telepointers.
    9. Audio-Video Distribution in CSCW.
    10. Audio-Videoconferencing.
    In-Depth: Codecs, Codecs, and Codecs.
    11. Multimedia Electronic Mail and Multimedia Document Transfer.
    Basics: The Successive Implementation Steps of Electronic Mail.
    12. Multimedia Server-Based Applications.
    In-Depth: Multimedia News-on-Demand — Two Test Cases.
    13. Hypermedia.
    14. World-Wide Web: Towards a Universal Information Hyperspace.
    In-Depth: World-Wide Web Specifications and Protocols.
    15. Virtual Reality.
    Basics: Perception of Distance and Depth. Basics: Three-dimensional Sound.
III. NETWORKING REQUIREMENTS OF MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS.
    16. What Is Meant by Network?
    Basics: Caches and Mirrors.
    17. Network Features and Performances.
    In-Depth: CRS and FEC.
    18. Networking Requirements of Audio and Motion Video.
    Basics: Delay Equalization. In-Depth: Studio-Quality Digital TV.
    19. Other Requirements.
IV. NETWORKING SOLUTIONS FOR MULTIMEDIA.
    20. Clarifying Several Networking Aspects.
    Basics: Isochronism, Asynchronism, Synchronism.
    21. LANs as Multimedia Carriers.
    Basics: Ethernet and Token Passing Ring Principles. In-Depth: Cables for LANs.
    22. Packet WANs as Multimedia Carriers.
    Basics: A Brief Description IP Multicasting Functioning.
    23. Circuit WANs as Multimedia Carriers.
    24. ATM WANs as Multimedia Carriers.
    25. Frame Relay and SMDS as Multimedia Carriers.
    26. Concluding Remarks on LAN and WAN Evolution.
V. ENCODING AND COMPRESSION.
    27. Basic Digitizing Techniques.
    Basics: Luminance, Lightness, Brightness. Basics: Representations of Colors and Video Cameras.
    28. Principles of Compression Techniques.
    29. Audio Compression.
    30. Image and TV Compression.
EPILOGUE.
    Sociological Implications of Multimedia.
    Twenty Key Messages.
    Final Word.
    Bibliography.

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