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MODULE-1

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Multimedia Communications

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Introduction

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Multimedia- information transferred is composed of text,

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images, audio and video.

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• Text- Unformatted – strings of characters from a limited
character set and Formatted – presentation of electronic
documents.
• Images- Computer-generated – line, circles, curves,
Digitized images - docs & pictures, etc.
• Audio- Low-fidelity speech - telephony and high-fidelity
stereophonic music - CD’s.
• Video- Moving imagesG.V.RAJA
and complete
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movies/films.
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Applications :

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• Person-to-person (communication) – Two people

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communicate through suitable Terminal Equipment (TE).
• Person-to-system (Interactive) – Using multimedia

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Personal computer/Workstation (Located at home/office).

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Old Networks:
• Public switched telephone networks(PSTNs) – initially
designed to provide speech services - due to advances in
DSP hardware and software, can support multimedia
applications.
• Data networks - initially designed to support data
applications (email and ftp) - now support much complex
multimedia applications.
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Multimedia Information Representation

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• Text - Block of characters, each represented by a fixed no.

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of binary digits (bits) known as codeword.
• Digitized image – 2D block of picture elements Pixels

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each represented by a fixed no. of bits.

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• Audio & Video - analog signal, amplitude varies
continuously with time. E.g: telephone conversation,
movie (audio + video).
• Single type of media - basic form of representation used.
• Mixed media –(text & images) or (audio & video) - their
basic form is used, have same form.
• Integrated media (text,images,audio,video)- all the four
media converted into a suitable digital form. Audio &
video are analog, mustG.V.RAJA AP/ECE SSCE
be digitalized before integration.
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Need for Compression

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• Amplitude of analog signal varies continuously with time –

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gives high bit rate.

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• E.g. – speech signal bit rate = 64kbps.

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• Digitization of video signal gives much higher bit rate.
• Communication network cannot support such high bit rate –
Compression Technique.
• Digital signals are Compressed to reduce the bit rate to a
level supported by networks.
• Compression is also done on text & image to reduce the
delay between a request being made and the information
been available. G.V.RAJA AP/ECE SSCE
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Multimedia Networks

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• Telephone Networks – Telephony.

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• Data Networks – Data Communications.

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• Broadcast Television Networks – Broadcast TV.

• Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) – Multi

service.

• Broadband Multiservice Networks – Multi service.

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Telephone Networks-PSTN

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Telephone Networks-PSTN

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• PSTN – Plain Old Telephone Service (POTs) – (public

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switched telephone network) - collection of interconnected

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voice-oriented public telephone networks, both commercial
and government-owned.

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• The term switched means a subscriber can make a call to
any other telephone on the ‘total’ network.
• Telephones in the home or in a small business are connected
directly to their nearest local exchange/end office.
• Telephones in a large office are connected to a private
switching office - private branch exchange (PBX)
• PBX provides free service between two telephones that are
connected to it.
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Telephone Networks -PSTN

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• A PBX is a telephone system within an enterprise that

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switches calls between enterprise users on local lines while
allowing all users to share a certain number of external

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phone lines. The main purpose of a PBX is to save the cost
of requiring a line for each user to the telephone company's

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central office.
• PBX is connected to the local exchange and this enables
phones connected to the PBX to make calls through PSTN
too.
• Cellular phone networks – Provides service to mobile
subscribers.
• The switches used in a cellular phone network are known as
Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs).
• International calls are routed to and switched by
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international gateway exchanges (IGEs).
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Telephone Networks – Digital Transmission using

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Modem

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S
Converts D to A Converts A to
at source D at destination

• Circuit mode – Telephone networks operate in this mode -

a separate circuit is set up through the network for each call
for the duration of the call.
• Access Circuits – Link the telephone handsets to a
PSTN/PBX and carry two-way analogue signals associated
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with a call.
 Telephone Networks – Multi Services via H-S

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Modem

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• Modem – device needed for transmission of digital bits
through analog access circuits. - converts D to A at source, A
to D at destination. - call set-up and termination.
•Earlier supported 300bps. Due to advanced DSP -56kbps.
•With high bit-rate channels, high resolution audio and video
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can be accessed for entertainment services.
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Data Networks

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• Designed to provide basic data communication services -
email and general file transfer.

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• User equipments – PC/workstation, email/file server.

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• Most widely deployed networks:

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– X.25 network (low bit rate data) -not suitable for multimedia
– Internet (Interconnected Networks) – operates with same
communication protocol.
• Communication protocol - set of rules (sequence, syntax)
that are adhered to by all communicating parties for the
exchange of information.
• OSI - Open System Interconnection (OSI). standard
description or "reference model" for how messages should
be transmitted between any two points in a
telecommunication network.
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Data Networks

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• ISP – Internet Service Provider – home/small business

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users access internet through intermediate ISP – connection
is PSTN with modem/ISDN(for high bit rate).

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• Site/campus network – business users obtain access

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through site network - single site business.

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• Enterprise-wide private network – multiple site business.
• Local area network (LAN) – Universities with single
campus use LAN network.
• Intersite backbone network – multiple sites/campus
networks are connected together.
• Internet backbone network - All types of network are
connected using a gateway/router to it.
• Intranet - same communication protocols used by all the
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computers on the network (large companies, universities).
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Data Networks

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• Packet - Container for a block of data - with address of the
recipient at its head - used to route data in the network.

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• All types of network are connected using a gateway/router

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to the internet backbone network.

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• Router - a router is a device/software in a computer, that
determines the next network point to which a packet should
be forwarded toward its destination.
• Packet mode – Operates by transfer of packets - as data is
in discrete block format.
• With the new multimedia PCs packet mode networks are
used to support in addition to the data communication
applications a range of multimedia applications involving
audio video and speech.G.V.RAJA AP/ECE SSCE
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Broadcast Television Network

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• Broadcast of analog TV programs to a wider geographical
area via a cable distribution network – town/city &
satellite/terrestrial broadcast network – larger area.
• A cable modem integrated into the STB (set-top-box)
provides both a low bit rate channel (connects the subscriber
to the PSTN ) and a high bit rate channel (connects to the
Internet) from the subscriber back to the cable head-end.
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Satellite/terrestrial broadcast network

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• In Satellite and broadcast networks by integrating an H-S
modem into the STB a range of interactive services can be
supported –“Interactive television”
• Set-top box - device that enables a TV set to become a user
interface to the Internet; also enables a TV to receive and
G.V.RAJA AP/ECE SSCE
decode digital television broadcasts. DTV set-top - Receivers.
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Integrated Services Digital Networks

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• Started at early 1980s to provide PSTN users the capability
to have additional services. Done by:

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– Access circuit in ISDN are converted to all digital form – DSL
Digital Subscriber Line.

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– Providing 2 separate communication channel in access circuit -

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either 2 different telephone calls simultaneously or a telephone
call and a data call.
• ADC circuits are placed inside a digital phone & they are
placed inside network termination equipment in analog
phone.
• Basic rate access - DSL of ISDN supports 2 channels each
64kbps – analog speech BR = 64kbps - used as:
– either 2 independent 64kbps channels.
– else 1 combined 128kbps channel
• Aggregation function G.V.RAJA
- synchronizes
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2 separate 64kbps
channels.
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Digital Subscriber Line (DSL):

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• Primary rate access - Single higher bit rate channel of

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1.5Mbps/2Mbps.
• ISDN supports single switched channel of px64kbps, where

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p=1,2,3,….30.

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• Due to high digitization cost, ISDN service cost is higher
than PSTN service.
• DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology for bringing
high-bandwidth information to homes and small businesses
over ordinary copper telephone lines.
• If home/small business is close to telephone company
central office with DSL service - continuous transmission of
motion video, audio, and even 3-D effects can be received.
• Individual connectionsG.V.RAJA
provides -1.544 Mbps - 512 kbps
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downstream & 128 Kbps upstream.
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Integrated Services Digital Networks

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Broadband Multi service Networks

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• Broadband – term used to indicate, Circuits associate with

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a call could have bit rates in excess of the maximum bit rate
of 2Mbps – 30X64 kbps – provided by ISDN.

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• Designed to be enhanced ISDN – called Broadband

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integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) -Basic
ISDN is called Narrowband ISDN (N-ISDN).
• So more flexible switching & transmission methods are
required than PSTN & ISDN – to achieve this:
– Different media in the source equipment are converted into digital
form.
– These are then integrated together.
– Resulting binary stream is divided into multiple fixed sixed
packets – Cells G.V.RAJA AP/ECE SSCE
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Broadband Multi service Networks

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• Different bit rate requirement of different multimedia

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applications are determined by the types of media involved.
• ATM- Asynchronous transfer mode - since different

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multimedia application generate cell stream of different rate,

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so rate of transfer of cells through the network also varies –
this mode of transmission is ATM.
•Broadband multiservice network
also called – ATM networks /
Cell-switching network.
•E.g. – ATM LAN – span single
site, ATM MAN – span large
town/city.
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Multimedia Applications

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Application that involve multiple media types:

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1. Interpersonal Communications: May involve speech,

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image, text or video. (speech only, image only, text only, text & image,
speech & video)

2. Interactive Applications over the Internet: Browsing

through sales, literature, newspapers, etc.

3. Entertainment Applications: Movie/Video on demand,

interactive television.

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1. Interpersonal Communications (Speech only)

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Interpersonal Communications (Speech only)

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• Traditional interpersonal communication - telephones

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connected to PSTN/ISDN/PBX.

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• Multimedia PC with a microphone and speakers - used to
make telephone calls through PC.

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• Requirements – telephone interface card and associated
software - technology is computer telephony integration (CTI).
•Advantages - users can create own private directory of
numbers and can initiate a call by selecting the desired no. on
the PC screen.
• Access circuits require more capacity/bandwidth.
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Additional services supported by the public &

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private networks

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1. Voice mail: Used when the called party is unavailable. A
spoken message - voice mail is saved in the voice mailbox,

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which is present at a central voice mail server – this
message can be read by the owner next time they contact

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the server.
2. Teleconferencing: Involves multiple interconnected
telephones/PCs. Each person can talk to all the others
involved in the call - conference call / teleconferencing
call / audio-conferencing call. Requires - central unit -
audio bridge - provides the necessary support to set up the
call automatically.
• Internet telephony initially supported PC-to-PC
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communications - technology is extend to PC-to-telephony.
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VoIP -Telephony over the Internet

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Telephony over Internet – Voice over IP
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VoIP -Telephony over the Internet

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• As internet has packet mode operation – both PC require

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software & hardware to convert speech signal from microphone
into packets and vice versa - Voice over IP (VoIP).

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• Telephony gateway – interworking unit used when a PC
connected to the Internet makes a call to telephone connected to

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PSTN/ISDN.
• PC requests to make a telephone call to a pre-allocated gateway
using its internet address – If user is registered, the gateway will
request the phone no. to establish the call from the PC.
• On receipt of this the source gateway will initiate a call with the
gateway nearest to the called party.
• The called gateway then establishes the call to the recipient
telephone using its telephone no.
• If the called party answers then a signal is sent back by the
recipient gateway to the G.V.RAJA
PC viaAP/ECE
the SSCE
source gateway.
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Image only interpersonal Communication

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• Fax: Exchange of electronic images or documents over
PSTN/ISDN

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• Requirement: pair of fax machines, one at each termination

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point, telephone interface card and associated software.
• Both fax machines have an integral modem within them.

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Image only interpersonal Communication

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Step 1: caller keys in the telephone no. of the recipient and a

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circuit is set up through the network.
Step 2: The two fax machines communicate with each other

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to establish operational parameters.

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Step 3: sending machine scan and digitize each page of the
document in turn and is simultaneously
transmitted over the network.
Step 4: After the final page has been sent/received the
connection through the network is cleared by the
calling machine.

• In addition it is possible to send digitised documents over

other enterprise network (LAN interface card and software
required). G.V.RAJA AP/ECE SSCE
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Text only interpersonal Communication

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• User terminal is normally a PC/work station – e.g. Email.

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• Home user access internet through PSTN/ISDN and ISP.
• A set of server computers are associated with each network -

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email server and they contain mailboxes for each user

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connected to the network.
• User can create and deposit Control
mails into their mailbox and
also read mail from it. Header
fields

Body/
message
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content
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Text only interpersonal Communication

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Text and images

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Text and images

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• Application - involves both text and images integrated
together is computer-supported cooperative working

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(CSCW) - the network used is Intranet/Internet/LAN.

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• Shared whiteboard - distributed group of people working
on the same project can share each others display.

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• CSCW comprises a central “whiteboard program” and a
linked set of support programs in each PC/workstation with
a shared window/workspace (shared whiteboard).
• CSCW made up of 2 part :
– change –notification part – whenever any member of the group
updates the content of their whiteboard, this part sends details of
the change to the whiteboard program.
– update –control part - this part relays the changes to the display
of all other PC in the group.
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Speech and video

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• E.g. - video telephony.
• Requirement - terminals/PCs with video camera, microphone

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& speaker.

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• Network must provide 2-way channel with sufficient

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bandwidth to support the integrated speech and video.
• Bandwidth requirement of access circuit is also higher.

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Speech and video

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• Desktop videoconferencing call – interconnected PC users

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in geographically distributed sites can share speech & video.

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• A central unit called a multipoint control unit(MCU) is
used - this selects a single information stream to send to

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each participant hence reducing the communication
bandwidth. – also Video conferencing server is used.
• Window of each participants displays the video image of all
other participants. – requires multiple integrated speech &
video communication channels - one for each participant –
more bandwidth requirements.

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Speech and video

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• Video conferencing using MCU

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• Bandwidth is reduced by voice-activated MCU – when MCU

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detects a participant speaking, it relays the information from
that participant to all others.

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• Reduces bandwidth.
• A single 2-way channel needed.

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Speech and video

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• Multicasting – all transmissions from any of the

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PCs/workstations belong to a predefined group are received
by all the other members of the group.

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• Using multicasting eliminates the need for an MCU unit.

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• Note: limited no. of participants involved.
Video conferencing
using broadcast
network

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Many-to-many videoconferencing

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•Person in one location is communicating with a group of
people in another location.
• These rooms must contain audio and video equipments –
called videoconferencing studios.
• Each studio will have few cameras, a large-display,
associated audio equipment - connected to a central unit called
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the videoconferencing system.
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Many-to-many videoconferencing

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Multimedia electronic S h
mail structure
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Multimedia

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• A multimedia email will consist of text, images, audio and
video. – E.g.- email applications consisting media types other

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than text are Voice-mail, Video mail and multimedia mail.

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• Voice-mail /Video-mail - With internet-based voice-mail,

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there is an associated voice-mail server with each network.
• User enters a voice message for the recipient and the local
recipient’s voice-mail server then relays this to the recipient
the next time he logs in.
•Multimedia mail – textual message is annotated with a
digitized image/ speech message / video message. – messages
can be directly sent to mail box.

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2. Interactive applications over the Internet

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• Most widely used interactive applications – (www) World
Wide Web – Web server. – comprises of linked set of

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multimedia information servers that are geographically

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distributed around the internet.
• Information stored in a vast library of documents.

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•Each documents comprises of linked set of pages and the
linkages between the pages – hyperlinks/ references –
pointers to other pages of the same doc or to any other doc.

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Interactive applications over the Internet

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•Anchor – optional linkage points within documents are defined by the
creator of the document - Hypertext – used to create Web text

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documents - Hypermedia – used to create Web documents with
multimedia (Video, Sound) - HTML – Hypertext markup language –

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standard format for writing documents.

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• Browser – The client function
that is used to explore the
total contents of the web.

•URL – uniform resource locator – unique address of each document –

server location where 1st page of the doc is stored. 1st page is home page
– all hyperlinked pages have similar url.
•Interactive Applications - home shopping, home banking, etc.. -
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teleshopping & telebanking - user interacts with server.
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3. Entertainment Applications

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• Entertainment applications are classified into:

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- Movie/video-on-demand

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- Interactive television

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3.a - Movie/video-on-demand

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• The entertainment applications require higher quality/
resolution for video and audio since wide-screen televisions

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and stereophonic sound are often used.

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•Digitized video with sound requires bit rate – 1.5Mbps –
network must support – PSTN with high bit rate modem.

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Movie/video-on-demand

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• Subscriber terminal - TV with a selection device for

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interaction purpose.
• User interactions are relayed to the server through a set-top-

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box (STB) with a high speed modem.

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• Movie-on-demand/Video-on-demand.
•Using menu, user can browse through the library of
movies/videos and initiate the showing of a selected movie
at any time.
•User can control showing of the movie – play, pause, etc.
• Server must be capable of playing out simultaneously a
large no. of video streams equal to the no. of users.
• Require high speed information flow from the server
(multi-movies + multi-copies).
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Near movie-on-demand (N-MOD)

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• N-MOD - to avoid

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the heavy load,

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requests for a particular
movie are not played

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immediately.
• Requests are queued
until the start of the
next play-out time.
•Reduces bandwidth
and cost.

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3.b - Interactive television (Cable network)

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• Broadcast TV network includes cable, satellite & terrestrial
networks
•The set-top box (STB) provides both a low bit rate
connection to the PSTN and a high bit rate connection to the
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internet.
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Interactive television (Satellite/terrestrial broadcast

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network)

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• The STB associated requires a high speed
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modem to provide
the connections to the PSTN and the Internet
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Terms used with Multimedia

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Media Types

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• Information associated with different applications can be:
• Continuous mode - information is continuously generated, in

a
time-dependent way, directly transmitted to destination and
played out directly as it is received. – streaming /real-time

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media. - E.g Audio & video.

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• Channel bit rate must support the rate of generation of
information.
•Source data is generated either at: constant bit-rate – audio or
variable bit-rate - video.
• Block-mode - source data comprise of a single block of
information - created in a time-independent way and stored at
the source. When requested it is transferred across the network
and displayed at a time specified by the requesting application
- downloading. E.g. – block of text in email.
•RTD – Round-trip delay – delay
G.V.RAJA between the request being
AP/ECE SSCE
made and the content being output at the destination.
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Communication Modes

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• Simplex: The information associated with the application
flows in one direction only.
• Half-Duplex: Information flows in both directions but
alternatively (two-way alternative).
• Duplex: Information flows in both directions simultaneously
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(Two-way simultaneous).
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Communication Modes

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• Broadcast - information output by a single node is received
by all the other nodes connected to the same network.
• Multicast - information output by the source is received by
only a specific subset of the nodes - multicast group.
• Bit rate associated with the flow of information in each
direction can be equal symmetric - Video Telephony or
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different asymmetric - Web browsing .
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Communication Modes

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Network Types (Circuit-mode)

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• This operates in a time-dependent manner and comprises an

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interconnected set of switching offices/exchanges to which the
subscriber terminals/computers are connected.

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Circuit-mode- Operational Principle

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Step1: The source must set up the connection first through the
network.

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Step2: Each subscriber terminal has a unique network wide

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address and to make a call the source first enters this number
of the intended communication partner.
Step3: The local switching office uses this number to set up a
connection. Depending on the availability of the destination
the connection will be established.
Step4: Finally at the end of information exchange the call will
be terminated by the source or the destination.
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Circuit-mode- Terminology

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• Signalling messages – The messages associated with the

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setting up and clearing of a connection.

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• Call/Connection setup delay – The delay associated with the

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connection procedures.
•Examples of Circuit-mode operation – PSTN and ISDN
•PSTN – setup delay varies from fraction of a second to few
seconds for international connections.
• ISDN – setup delay ranges from tens of milliseconds through
to several hundred milliseconds.

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Packet mode

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• There are two types of packet-mode network

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- Connection Oriented (CO)

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PSE: Packet
Switching Exchanges

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• As the name implies a connection is established prior to
information interchange
• The connection utilizesG.V.RAJA
only a variable portion of the
AP/ECE SSCE
bandwidth of each link and known as virtual circuit (VC)
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Packet mode – Operational Principle

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• To set up a VC the source terminal sends a call request

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control packet to the local PSE which in addition to the source
and destination addresses holds a short identifier known as

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virtual circuit identifier (VCI).

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•Each PSE maintains a table that specifies the outgoing link to
use to reach the network address.
•On receipt of the call request the PSE uses the destination
address within the packet to determine the outgoing link.
• The next free identifier (VCI) for this link is selected and two
entries are made in the routing table.

•E.g. - X.25 (text) and ATM (multimedia)

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Packet mode – Connectionless

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• Connectionless network – connection establishment is not
required and they can exchange information as and when they
arrive.
•Each packet must carry the full source and destination
address in its header in order for each PSE/router to route the
packet onto the appropriate outgoing link.
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•E.g. - Internet
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Packet mode – Summary

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• In both types each packet is stored in a memory buffer and a

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check is performed to determine if any transmission errors are
present in the received message. (0 instead of a 1 &vice versa)

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• Best-effort service - If an error is detected, packet is

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discarded.
• All packets are transmitted at the maximum link bit rate.
• Store-and-forward- packets may use the same link to
transfer information.
• Overall transfer delay - sum of the store and forward delays
in each PSE/router.
• Mean packet transfer delay - mean of overall transfer
delay.
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• Delay variation or jitter - variation about this mean.
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Multipoint Conferencing

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• Multipoint conferencing is implemented in one of two ways

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- Centralized mode - Decentralized mode
• Centralized mode - is used with circuit switched networks

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such as PSTN and ISDN - central server is used.

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• Prior to sending any data each
terminal needs to set up a
connection to the server.
• The terminal then sends the data
to the server.
• The server distributes the data to
all the other terminals connected
in the conference.
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Multipoint Conferencing – Centralized mode

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• With this mode a central server is used

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• Prior to sending any information each terminal needs to set

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up a connection to the server
• The terminal then sends the information to the server.
• The server then distributes this information to all the other
terminals connected in the conference

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Multipoint Conferencing – Decentralized mode

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• Decentralized mode is used with packet-switched networks

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that support multicast communications.
• E.g – LAN, Intranet, Internet

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• Output of each terminal is received by all the other members

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of the conference/multicast group - conference server is not
required - each terminal is responsible to manage the
information streams they receive from other members.

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Hybrid Mode

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• This type of mode is used when the terminals are connected
to different network types
• In this mode the server determines the output stream to be
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sent to each terminal
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Network QoS

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• Network Quality of Service parameters - Operational
parameters associated with a communication channel through

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a network that determine the suitability of the channel for use

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in a particular application.
•N-QoS is different for circuit & packet switched network.

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• Circuit-switched network -
1. Bit Rate - (BER) - probability of a bit being
corrupted during its transmission in a defined time interval. In
a constant bit channel – BER is probability of a bit being
corrupted in a defined no. of bits.
•E.g.–BER=10-3– 1 bit is corrupted for every 1000 bits
transmitted. Speech – occasional bit error is unimportant, but
important for financial information -data
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is divided into blocks
with maximum size determined by mean BER of the channel.
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• Probability of a block containing bit error – PB=1- (1– P)N

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P = probability of BER ; N = no. of bits in a block.

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2. Mean Bit Error Rate – mean of the bit error rate
3. Transmission Delay – network interface delay +

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signal propagation delay from source to destination.

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Packet-switched network-
1. Maximum packet size
2. Mean packet transfer rate - average number of
packets transferred across the network per second.
3. Mean Packet error rate - probability of a received
packet containing one or more bit errors.
4. Worst case jitter - variation about the mean.
5. Transmission delay.
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Network Qos

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• Most networks (circuit and packet switched) provide an

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unreliable service which is also known as a best-try or best-

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effort service.

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• If the application accepts only error free blocks then it is
necessary for the sending terminal to divide the source
information into blocks of a defined maximum size and the
destination to detect any missing blocks.
•When a block is missing then the destination must request for
a copy of the block from the source. The service is then called
a reliable service.

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Application Qos

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• The application quality of service is different from the

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network QoS.
• E.g.- image application parameters - minimum image

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resolution, size; video -digitization format, refresh rate.

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•Application QoS – Parameters
•The required bit rate or mean packet transfer rate
•The maximum start-up delay
•The maximum end-to-end delay
•The maximum delay variation/jitter
• The maximum round-trip delay

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Application Qos

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• Large file transfer from server to home computer using the

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packet switched (PW) and circuit switched (CS) networks.
- PSTN (28.8kbps) and ISDN (64/128kbps) operate in CS

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mode and provide constant bit rate channel

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- Cable modem operate in PS mode and the bit rate of the
shared channel is 27Mbps
• Assuming the file size is 100Mbits, the minimum time to
transmit the file using the different modes is:
- PSTN and 28.8 kbps modem: 57.8 minutes
- ISDN at 64 kbps: 26 minutes
- ISDN at 128 kbps: 13 minutes
- cable modem at 27 Mbps: 3.7 seconds
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Application Qos

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• Transmission of a constant bit rate stream over a packet
switched network.
•The start-up delay defines the amount of time that elapses
between an application making a request to start a session and
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the confirmation being received at the destination.
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Application Qos

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• To overcome the effect of jitter a technique known as
buffering is used.
• By retaining a defined number of packets in a memory buffer
at the destination before play-out of the information bit stream
is started.
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Application QoS - Summary

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• In order to determine whether a particular network can meet

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the QoS requirements of an Application a number of standard

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application service classes have been defined.

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• Each service class has an associated set of QoS parameters
defined.
• For networks that support different service classes (internet),
the packets relating to each class are assigned a different
priority.
• Real time streams have higher priority than packets relating
to email.
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Summary

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Summary

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Summary – MMC Network & Services

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