Julio Nogima

Extending the Service Bus for Successful and Sustainable IPTV Services

Telecom carriers have positioned IPTV as one of the key components of triple-play (broadband, television, and voice) or quad-play (with the addition of mobility). Adoption of Web services within a SOA framework as building blocks for developing complex media workflows is an important step toward reuse of media processing tools in an IPTV environment. A Web services approach also provides the capability to abstract network-based services for creation of composite services that can be executed in an IPTV environment. At the same time, adoption of a service bus provides a single point of integration for multiple services, and common features such as service registry and discovery, reliable message delivery, and transformation in a heterogeneous production environment. In this article we present an approach of media enabling the service bus to support offline digital media processes and composite service execution in an IPTV production environment.

Non-intrusive Adaptive Multi-media Routing in Peer-to-Peer Multi-party Video Conferencing

Motivated by the problem of limited bandwidth in peer-to-peer (P2P) multi-party video conferencing systems, in this paper we propose a non-intrusive adaptive multi-media routing algorithm that effectively calculates stream routing to achieve a maximum number of receiving streams. The technique is non-intrusive in that it makes use of current streaming status to infer link bottlenecks rather than sending active probing packets, which would seriously interfere with the latency-sensitive video conferencing application and waste bandwidth. When link bottlenecks are detected, the method will adaptively calculate streaming routes, allowing bandwidth abundant peers to act as relays. To test the performance, we use real data from a world wide bandwidth distribution archive and investigate the algorithm convergence rate and distribution fairness through simulation. Results show that the technique works well to achieve effective multi-media routing for latency-sensitive video conferencing applications.

A Feasibility Study of Collaborative Stream Routing in Peer-to-Peer Multiparty Video Conferencing

Video transmission in multiparty video conferencing is challenging due to the demanding bandwidth usage and stringent latency requirement. In this paper, we systematically analyze the problem of collaborative stream routing using one-hop forwarding assistance in a bandwidth constraint environment. We model the problem as a multi-source degree-constrained multicast tree construction problem, and investigate heuristic algorithms to construct bandwidth-feasible shared multicast trees. The contribution of this work is primarily two-fold: (1) we study the solution space of finding a feasible bandwidth configuration for stream routing in a peer-to-peer (P2P) setting, and propose two heuristic algorithms that can quickly produce a bandwidth-feasible solution, making them suitable for large-scale conference sessions, (2) we conduct an empirical study using a realistic dataset and show the effectiveness of our heuristic algorithms. Various QoS metrics are taken into account to evaluate the performance of our algorithms. Finally, we discuss open issues for further exploration. The feasibility study presented in this paper will shed light on the design and implementation of practical P2P multiparty video conferencing applications.

Media-Aware Workflows

In this work, we present Media-Aware Workflows, an extension to Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) middleware for automating media workflows. The combination of SOA and BPMS technologies provides a robust architectural approach for integrating and orchestrating the multiple heterogeneous systems involved in enterprise-level workflows. However, media-intensive workflows pose a set of unique requirements. For example, typical media processes require utility media services such as transcoding, data movement, content storage, asset and metadata management. Media-specific considerations regarding formats, profiles, large file sizes and content security must be taken into account for every step of the media workflow. Difference in culture between the IT and the operational/media engineering departments must also be addressed for a successful SOA adoption. Media-Aware Workflows provides a robust layered system controlled by domain-specific business rules to address media specific requirements. The novelty of our approach is based on the combination of static and dynamic workflow composition and the ability to automate control of the media specific aspects of the workflow with business rules, providing clear separation of roles for business experts, IT personnel and media engineers.