Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

CHORUS Deliverable 2.1: State of the Art on Multimedia Search Engines

Based on the information provided by European projects and national initiatives related to multimedia search as well as domains experts that participated in the CHORUS Think-thanks and workshops, this document reports on the state of the art related to multimedia content search from, a technical, and socio-economic perspective. The technical perspective includes an up to date view on content based indexing and retrieval technologies, multimedia search in the context of mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks, and an overview of current evaluation and benchmark inititiatives to measure the performance of multimedia search engines. From a socio-economic perspective we inventorize the impact and legal consequences of these technical advances and point out future directions of research

Optimal competitiveness for Symmetric Rectilinear Steiner Arborescence and related problems

We present optimal competitive algorithms for two interrelated known problems involving Steiner Arborescence. One is the continuous problem of the Symmetric Rectilinear Steiner Arborescence (SRSA), studied by Berman and Coulston. A very related, but discrete problem (studied separately in the past) is the online Multimedia Content Delivery (MCD) problem on line networks, presented originally by Papadimitriu, Ramanathan, and Rangan. An efficient content delivery was modeled as a low cost Steiner arborescence in a grid of network*time they defined. We study here the version studied by Charikar, Halperin, and Motwani (who used the same problem definitions, but removed some constraints on the inputs). The bounds on the competitive ratios introduced separately in the above papers are similar for the two problems: O(log N) for the continuous problem and O(log n) for the network problem, where N was the number of terminals to serve, and n was the size of the network. The lower bounds were Omega(sqrt{log N}) and Omega(sqrt{log n}) correspondingly. Berman and Coulston conjectured that both the upper bound and the lower bound could be improved. We disprove this conjecture and close these quadratic gaps for both problems. We first present an O(sqrt{log n}) deterministic competitive algorithm for MCD on the line, matching the lower bound. We then translate this algorithm to become a competitive optimal algorithm O(sqrt{log N}) for SRSA. Finally, we translate the latter back to solve MCD problem, this time competitive optimally even in the case that the number of requests is small (that is, O(min{sqrt{log n},sqrt{log N}})). We also present a Omega(sqrt[3]{log n}) lower bound on the competitiveness of any randomized algorithm. Some of the techniques may be useful in other contexts

Network overload avoidance by traffic engineering and content caching

The Internet traffic volume continues to grow at a great rate, now driven by video and TV distribution. For network operators it is important to avoid congestion in the network, and to meet service level agreements with their customers. This thesis presents work on two methods operators can use to reduce links loads in their networks: traffic engineering and content caching. This thesis studies access patterns for TV and video and the potential for caching. The investigation is done both using simulation and by analysis of logs from a large TV-on-Demand system over four months. The results show that there is a small set of programs that account for a large fraction of the requests and that a comparatively small local cache can be used to significantly reduce the peak link loads during prime time. The investigation also demonstrates how the popularity of programs changes over time and shows that the access pattern in a TV-on-Demand system very much depends on the content type. For traffic engineering the objective is to avoid congestion in the network and to make better use of available resources by adapting the routing to the current traffic situation. The main challenge for traffic engineering in IP networks is to cope with the dynamics of Internet traffic demands. This thesis proposes L-balanced routings that route the traffic on the shortest paths possible but make sure that no link is utilised to more than a given level L. L-balanced routing gives efficient routing of traffic and controlled spare capacity to handle unpredictable changes in traffic. We present an L-balanced routing algorithm and a heuristic search method for finding L-balanced weight settings for the legacy routing protocols OSPF and IS-IS. We show that the search and the resulting weight settings work well in real network scenarios

Smart TVs: the new age of television and advertising

A televisão teve, ao longo de toda a sua história, um papel preponderante na cultura e economia mundiais. A sua importância reside no seu potencial enquanto veículo de informação e entretenimento, mas também de promoção para as marcas, que foi, aliás, a sua principal fonte de receita ao longo dos anos. Com o lançamento das Smart TVs, a publicidade na televisão sofrerá uma grande revolução graças à união entre TV e internet, criando um novo mundo de inovação e tecnologia para o qual este estudo abre as primeiras portas. O estudo é constituído por uma revisão histórica e literária, seguida da elaboração de um estudo exploratório qualitativo a 12 especialistas internacionais da indústria da publicidade e da televisão. Dessa pesquisa concluiu-se que uma grande mudança irá acontecer, mas de forma gradual e progressiva, alterando-se alguns dos principais paradigmas atuais da publicidade na televisão tais como a capacidade de avaliação de resultados e a segmentação. Posteriormente concluiu-se que a futura publicidade na televisão fará uso de aparelhos complementares à TV para melhorar a experiência e impacto no utilizador. Privilegiará também a componente social e interativa da publicidade, assim como a personalização dos conteúdos provenientes de ligações on-air e online. Finalmente concluiu-se que alguns dos principais papéis dos elementos da indústria irão mudar sendo os anunciantes e os canais de televisão os menos afetados, ao contrário das agências que terão forte necessidade de adaptação e dos produtores de TV que sairão fortalecidos graças à oferta de soluções publicitárias para as marcas.Television had, throughout its history, a leading role in the world economy and culture. Its importance lies in its potential as a vehicle of information and entertainment, but also of promotion for brands, which was its main source of income over the years. With the launch of Smart TVs, advertising on television will suffer a great revolution thanks to the merger between TV and the internet, creating a whole new world of innovation and technology for which this study opens the first doors. The study consists in a historic and literary review, followed by the elaboration of an exploratory qualitative research to 12 international experts from the industry of TV and advertising. This study concluded that a big change will gradually and progressively happen, by changing some of the major current paradigms of advertising on television such as the results measurement and targeting capacity. Later it was concluded that the future TV advertising will make use of complementary devices others than TV, to enhance the audiences’ impact and experience. The social and interactive component of advertising will be valued, as well as the customization of content coming out of on-air and online connections. Finally it was concluded that some of the main roles of the elements of the industry will change being advertisers and broadcasters the least affected, unlike agencies that will have strong need of adaptation, and TV producers who will be strengthened through the delivery of advertising solutions for brands

Integrated Home Server

Since the advent of the microprocessor in the 1970s, the market for consumer electronics has exploded with new devices changing the way we live and do business. Today, mobile phones, cameras, PCs, iPads, mp3 players, network media players, security systems, automation and IT systems, all have common functionality and there is an increasing need for unification of access to all these devices around a common server based architecture to unlock the benefits of smart integration and to simplify access for the end user. IHS project is designed to provide to its business and home owners a unified network for all IT and electronic systems within a home or an office. This system integrates security, surveillance, access and attendance, home automation, audio and video players, File Server, Email Server, SMS Server (Texting), HTTP Proxy Server, DHCP Server, a caching DNS Server, Web Server and an internet gateway with an automatic virus scanner. In fact, it is a comprehensive system that completely governs a place wherever it is installed and provides integrated remotely accessible infrastructure for a Home or Business. Access to all home and business systems is available from any computer on the LAN, the internet and mobile phone. IHS is built around the Gateman Lifestyle Server which uses the robust Enterprise Linux Kernel CEntOS 5 and is written in Java. It can be accessed from Windows, MAC, Linux machines and i-phones as well as from any device that has a Java script enabled web browser. The device driver architecture allows additional electronic hardware to be incorporated making it relevant and extendable well into the future