Video transport in ATM networks: a systems view

Abstract.

This paper presents a systems view of video transport issues in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. Since video is a critical component of future distributed multimedia applications, we consider technical approaches necessary to realize a flexible, robust, and efficient ATM framework for video delivery. The overall system-design problem is discussed for a general distributed multimedia computing scenario, and key video-related design issues are identified. This is followed by a more detailed discussion of selected ATM video topics, including: (1) variable bit-rate (VBR) statistical multiplexing and dynamic usage parameter control (VBR+), (2) ATM cell-loss concealment in MPEG decoders, and (3) new transport protocols (“MTP”) for video and multimedia. Supporting simulation or experimental results from ongoing research are given where available.