László Böszörményi: Advanced topics in computer networking - with emphasis on multimedia communication in heterogeneous networks

Abstract

In the coming decade, the nature of computing devices will change to fully networked, partly almost invisible components within augmented environments. The actors, both on the human and machine side in these emerging environments, will be mobile in several senses of the word. They will dynamically change their locations, roles, interests and their access capabilities, such as network connections and presentation equipment. Moreover, this will be a world of extremely rich multimedia contents. A user might receive the same information in different appearance at different places and times, and in different roles. The same information can be displayed in different modalities and qualities. Accurate information has to be available everywhere, anytime, as determined by the current context.

The course gives an introduction into some important aspects of this new kind of communication, with a special emphasis on multimedia communication in heterogeneous networks. Topics, like quality of service, video transmission over the internet, effective use of proxies, adaptation techniques to fluctuating network conditions and novel concepts such as that of the Universal Multimedia Access (as proposed in the MPEG-21) standard will be explored.