Introducing IP Domain Flexible Middleware Stacks for Multicast Multimedia Distribution in Heterogeneous Environments

Abstract

Extensible middleware is needed to cover small resource constrained devices to full-fledged desktop computers thus we investigate dynamic micro-protocols which enable devices to adopt specific protocol stacks at runtime in an attempt to optimise the stack to the functionality that is actually required by the application thus eliminating additional overhead functionality provided by generic stacks. Multicast media groups allow clients to subscribe to different quality of services in accordance with resource availability and move between groups according to bandwidth availability over time. Performance is increased through application specific tailored protocols & reducing protocol complexity allows stacks to fit inside the limited memory of current mobile devices. We evaluate the dynamic reconfigurability of the middleware and present some results from applications utilising runtime adaptation.