CS8092-COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND

MULTIMEDIA
UNIT-V
HYPERMEDIA

Distributed Multimedia Systems

INTRODUCTION
 In a distributed system the users can share
the same data across a complex
multilevel network, the performance
parameters of the network become an
extremely important issue.
 A distributed multimedia system (DMS) is
an integrated communication, computing,
and information system that enables the
processing, management, delivery, and
presentation of
synchronized multimedia information with
quality-of-service guarantees.
COMPONENTS OF DMS
 Application software
 Container object store

 Image and still video store

 Audio and Video component store

 Object directory service agent

 Component service agent

 User interface service agent

 Networks
 APPLICATION SOFTWARE
 It creates, edits or render multimedia objects.
 It determines how multimedia objects are
manipulated and the extend to which the user can
control the rendering of the multimedia objects.
 It performs number of tasks related to a
specific business process.
 It consists of a series of actions that may be
performed by one or more users.
 This series of actions is based on the individual
tasks to performs a function of business process.
 The basic tasks are
 Object selection-user selects a record from file
systems, dbms or file server
 Object retrieval- retrieves the base objects and
displayed
 Object component display- some components
displayed automatically when the user moves
pointer to the field
 User initiated display-requires user action
before play back or display
 Object display management and editing –
which allows a user to control or edit.
CONTAINER OBJECT STORE
 A document store is essential for applications that require
storage of large volumes of documents.
 Container object store is used to store container objects in a
network object server.
 The container may be a hypermedia document or a
database record.
 Multimedia objects are embedded in or linked to a container
object and it is referred when the application starts.
 Typical repositories for container object include relational
databases, object-oriented databases.
 Characteristics are
 Primary document storage- contains primary documents
 Linked object storage – contains embedded and linked
documents.
 Linked object management – contains information about
linked documents(name, type, size, duration of play h/w
and s/w requirements for rendering)
IMAGE AND STILL VIDEO STORE
 It is a mass storage component for images
and still video.
 Such as X-rays are stored for long duration
and are not editable.
 They can be stored on WORM(write once
read many)servers
 Characteristics are
 Compressed information
 Multi image documents
 Related annotations
 Large volumes
 Shared access
 Migration between high volume media and high
speed media
AUDIO AND FULL MOTION VIDEO
STORE
 It is a storage resource used for storing audio
and video objects.
 The life of a video objects depends on the
type of database for which it is being used.
 Characteristics are
 Large capacity file system
 Temporary or permanent storage
 Migration to high volume/ lower cost media
 Playback isochronicity – constant stream mode
without break
 Multiple shared access
 OBJECT DIRECTORY SERVICE
AGENT(DSA)
 It is responsible for assigning identification for all
multimedia object types managed by that agent.
 The identification must be unique for the network.

 Services provided by DSA are

 Directory service-list objects by class and server
location
 Object assignment- assign unique identification
 Object status management-track the current usage
status
 Directory service domains- allow setting up
domains around group of servers
 Directory service server elements- must have an
associated directory services element that may reside
on the server or some other shared resource.
 Network access-must be accessible from any
workstation and it can be managed.
COMPONENT SERVICE AGENT
 It locates each embedded or linked
component object of a multimedia container
and managing proper sequence of objects.
 Characteristics are
 Object creation service- creating new object,
storing, editing
 Play back service- play, seek,
search,copy,delete
 Component object service agent- it provides
services for the specific object type.
 Service agents on servers – is used where the
object of its type are stored.
 Multifaced services- object may exist in several
forms such as compressed or decompressed and it
can be translated efficiently.
USER INTERFACE SERVICE AGENT
 It manages the display windows on a user
workstation, interacts with the user, sizes the
display windows and scales the decompressed
object to the selected window size.
 The services are
 Window management- creates and manages the new
window
 Object creation and capture
 Object display and play back
 Service on workstations
 Using display software
DISTRIBUTED CLIENT SERVER OPERATION
 Most client-server systems were designed to
connect a client across a network to a server that
provided database functions.
 In this case, the client-server link was firmly
established over the network.
 There was only one copy of the object on the
specified server.
 With the development of distributed work group
computing, the server and client can be
connected with a large distributed database.
 It plays an important role in multimedia systems.
 While raw data such as numbers, text fields are
meaningful to the database.
 The database must assign some form of
identification and an understanding of the data.
CLIENTS IN DISTRIBUTED WORK
GROUP COMPUTING
 Clients in distributed workgroup computing are the
end users with workstations running multimedia
applications.
 The client systems interact with the data servers in
any of the following ways
 Request specific textual data.
 Request specific multimedia objects embedded
or linked in retrieved container objects.
 Require activation of a rendering server
application to display/ playback multimedia objects.
 Create and store multimedia-objects on
servers.
 Request directory information on locations of
objects on servers
In distributed operation, the clients have no
specific knowledge of where the data servers
are and how the data is organized.
 The user is primarily concerned with the
data object and the manipulation of the data
object relative to other data objects.
SERVERS IN DISTRIBUTED
WORKGROUP COMPUTING
In addition to the basic function of storing data
objects, provide a number of other functions
listed as follows:
 They provide storage for a variety of object
classes.
 They transfer objects on demand on clients.

 They provide hierarchical storage for moving

unused objects.
 They provide system administration functions
for backing up stored data.
 Direct high-speed LAN and WAN server-to-
server transport for copying multimedia objects.
DATABASE OPERATIONS
 The basic operations of database are
 Search
 Browse
 Retrieval
 Create and Store
 Update
MIDDLEWARE IN DISTRIBUTED
WORKGROUP COMPUTING
 The middleware is like interface between
back-end database and front-end
clients.
 The primary role of middleware is to link
back end database to front end clients in a
highly flexible and loosely connected network
model.
 Middleware provides the glue for dynamically
redirecting client requests to appropriate
servers that are on-line.
 It is the primary catalyst for creating a
distributed network of servers and clients.
TYPES OF MULTIMEDIA SERVER
 The resources where information objects are
stored so that they remain sharable across
the network are called servers.
 The object servers refers to the specialized
server software managing a class of objects.
 Types:
 Data-processing servers RDBMSs and ODBMS
 Document database servers
 Document imaging and still-video servers
 Audio and voice mail servers
 Full motion video server
 Data-processing servers
 It contains alphanumeric data
 Document database servers
 Used for electronic mail databases as well as
document based information repositories.
 Document imaging and still-video servers
 Store and manage image and still video objects
 Audio and voice mail servers
 Used primarily for applications such as voice mail
, voice annotations and voice help messages.
 Full motion video server
 Designed to manage very large objects.
MASS STORAGE FOR MULTIMEDIA
SERVERS
 Magnetic disk
 RAID(Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive
Disks)
 Write Once Read Many Optical
Drives(WORM)
 WORM Optical drives provide very high volumes of
storage for very low cost.
 WORM drives can write once only; typically 5-10% of
disk capacity is left free to provide for changes to
existing information.
 They are useful for recording information's that would
not change very much.
 Optical drives tend to be slower than magnetic drives
 Rewritable Optical Disks
 Optical Disk Libraries
NETWORK TOPOLOGIES FOR
MULTIMEDIA OBJECT SERVERS
 Centralized multimedia server
 Dedicated multimedia server

 Distributed multimedia server

CENTRALIZED MULTIMEDIA SERVER

 It performs as a central store for multimedia

objects.
 User requests for multimedia objects are
forwarded by the applications to the
centralized server and are played back from
the server.
 It may serve a particular site of the entire
enterprise.
 Each object has a unique identity across the
enterprise and can be accessed from any
workstation.
 It is obvious for a small enterprise with fewer
than 100 active users.
DEDICATED MULTIMEDIA SERVER

 If a video server is on a separate dedicated

segment, there is no other contention within
that segment for LAN traffic.
 When a workstation dumps a large video, the
other servers on the network are not
affected.
 From a performance perspective this
approach provides very high performance
for all local operations.
 Disadvantage: duplication of objects
MULTISERVER NETWORK TOPOLOGIES
 Traditional LANs (Ethernet or token ring)
 Extended LANs(Network Switching hubs,
bridges and routers)
 High Speed LAN(ATM and FDDI)

 WANs(including LAN, dial-up links)

 Ethernet
 Ethernet is a way of connecting computers
together in a local area network or LAN. It has
been the most widely used method of linking
computers together in LANs.
 The basic idea of its design is that multiple computers
have access to it and can send data at any time.
 Token ring
 Token Ring is a computer networking technology
used to build local area networks. It uses a special
three-byte frame called a token that travels around a
logical ring of workstations or servers.
 In a token ring protocol, the topology of the network
is used to define the order in which stations send. 
 Hub
 When referring to a network, a hub is the most
basic networking device that connects
multiple computers or other network devices together.
Unlike a network switch or router, a network hub has no
routing tables or intelligence on where to send information
and broadcasts all network data across each connection.
 Bridges
 A bridge is a type of computer network device that
provides interconnection with other bridge networks that
use the same protocol. Bridge devices work at the data link
layer of the Open System Interconnect (OSI) model,
connecting two different networks together and providing
communication between them
 Routers
 A router is a networking device that forwards data packets
between computer networks. Routers perform the traffic
directing functions on the Internet. Data sent through the
internet, such as a web page or email, is in the form of data
packets. ... A router is connected to two or more data lines
from different IP networks.
 ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)
 Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a
switching technique used by telecommunication
networks that uses asynchronous time-division
multiplexing to encode data into small, fixed-
sized cells. This is different from Ethernet or
internet, which use variable packet sizes for data
or frames
 FDDI II (Fiber Distributed Data Interface II)
 Fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), which is
an optical data communication standard used
for long distance networks
provides communication with fiber optic lines
up to 200 kilometers at a speed of 100 megabit
per second (Mbps). 
DISTRIBUTED MULTIMEDIA DATABASES
 It consists of a number of different types of
multimedia objects.
 It may include RDBMS,OODBMS
 It is feasible to include an image or a video object
as a binary large objects(BLOB) in a relational
database.
 Issues:
 How is location of the object determined?
 Where should each object reside?
 How are they recompiled for playback?
 How are various classes of service maintained
and delivered?
 How are objects uniquely identified?
 How are multiple copies maintained to provide
efficient and reliable access?
DATA INDEPENDENCE
 Flexible access to a variety of distributed
databases for one or more applications
requires that the data be independent from
the application.
 Key features:
 Storage design is independent of specific
applications.
 Explicit data definitions are independent of
application programs
 Users need not know data formats or storage
structure
 Integrity assurance is independent of application
programs.
 Recovery is independent of application
programs.
COMMON DISTRIBUTED DATABASE
ARCHITECTURE
 Features:

 Ability for multiple independent data

structures
 Uniform distributed access by clients
 Single point for recovery of each database
server
 Expandability
 Convenient data re-organization to suit
requirements
MULTIPLE DATA SERVERS
 A database server is a dedicated resource on
a network accessible to a number of
applications.
 When a large number of users need to
access the same resources they experience
bottle necks because the server cannot
keep up with the demands.
 This problem is solved by setting up
multiple data servers that have copies
of the same resources.
TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT FOR
MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS
 It is a sequence of events that starts when a
user makes a request to create, render, edit
or print a hypermedia document.
 The transaction is complete when the user
releases the hypermedia document and
stores back the edited versions or discards
the copy in memory or local storage.
MANAGING HYPERMEDIA RECORDS
 Hypermedia records are complex.
 It can be stores in a document database in RDBMS or
OODBMS.
 It need not be embedded in the database record.
 Instead a reference can be embedded and the
multimedia object can reside separately in its own
database. It includes
 Object type
 Object ID
 File name
 Size of the object
 Network server where it is created
 Application that created the object.
 Time and date of creation
 Related objects information
 Indexing information for indexed objects.
Object Linking and Embedding: (OLE)

 Allows objects to be linked or embedded.

 It contains both presentation and native data.
 A linked object contains only the data needed
represent the object is presentation data.
 A pointer to an actual file that contains the original
data plus information needed to edit the object is
native data.
 When an icon for an embedded object is double
clicked the application that created the object starts
and the object can be viewed or edited.
 The original copy of the object is not affected when
an embedded copy is edited.
 Difference between embedding and linking:

EMBEDDING LINKING

Embedding causes the Linking allows the object to

object to be stored with be stored in a specialized
container document. object server

An embedded object is A linked objects depends on

always available with the resolving the link to a copy
container an accessible server

Editing an embedded object Editing a linked copy affects

affects only the embedded all container documents
copy, not the original object that reference it.
INTERSERVER COMMUNICATIONS
 Object Replication
 Managing replicated copies of objects in an
intelligent manner
 Object Distribution
 Accessing objects spread throughout the
organization
 Object Recompilation
 Ensuringaccess to all objects required for a
complex database record
 Object Management
 For efficient use of a system
 Network Resources
 The following lists the types of communications that one
server may make to another server:
 Obtain a token from an object name server for creating
a new multimedia object; the object is not accessible by
others users until complete and released.
 Search the object class directory for the current
locations of that object and the least expensive route for
accessing it.
 Perform a shared read lock on the object to ensure
that it is n archived or purged while it is being retrieved.
 Replicate a copy of the object; update the object name
server directory.
 Copy an object for non-persistent use.
 Test and set an exclusive lock on an object for editing
purposes
 create new versions
 Pause the retrieval of an object to support a user
action or to pace the retrieval to the speed supported by
the network.