In recent years rapid Internet growth has pushed the development of new multimedia applications in all aspects of life such as entertainment, communication, collaborative work and electronic commerce. Future applications will make use of different technologies like voice, data and video, but in order to make such a wide variety of multimedia applications successful, a number of technology and management issues must be addressed. Multimedia Networking: Technology, Management and Applications addresses the dynamic and efficient uses of resources ? a fundamental aspect of multimedia networks. Geared toward professionals, educators and students alike, this exciting new book will detail current research and the future direction of multimedia networking.

We are delighted to present the proceedings of the 8th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia Networks and Services (MMNS 2005). The MMNS 2005 conference was held in Barcelona, Spain on October 24–26, 2005. As in previous years, the conference brought together an international audience of researchers and scientists from industry and academia who are researching and developing state-of-the-art management systems, while creating a public venue for results dissemination and intellectual collaboration. This year marked a challenging chapter in the advancement of management systems for the wider management research community, with the growing complexities of the “so-called” multimedia over Internet, the proliferation of alternative wireless networks (WLL, WiFi and WiMAX) and 3G mobile services, intelligent and high-speed networks scalable multimedia services and the convergence of computing and communications for data, voice and video delivery. Contributions from the research community met this challenge with 65 paper submissions; 33 high-quality papers were subsequently selected to form the MMNS 2005 technical program. The diverse topics in this year’s program included wireless networking technologies, wireless network applications, quality of services, multimedia, Web applications, overlay network management, and bandwidth management.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on the Management of Multimedia Networks and Services, MMNS 2003, held in Belfast, Northern Ireland in September 2003. The 39 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on stream control and management, management and control of multicast communications, ad-hoc and sensor networks, QoS and mobility management in wireless networks, traffic engineering and routing, differentiated network services, on-demand networking issues and policies, multimedia QoS management, security management, and (corresponding to an associated workshop) end-to-end monitoring techniques and services.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia Netwoks and Services, MMNS 2004, held in San Diego, CA, USA in October 2004. The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 84 papers submitted. The papers are organized in topical sections on multimedia over wireless, adaptive multimedia streaming, novel protocols in wireless systems, scalable multimedia systems, MPLS: bandwidth provisioning and control, distributed systems management, proactive quality of service, multimedia service control and management, and mobility: control and management.

With the continual growth in telecommunication services in today's multimedia environment, reliability and control are essential elements in the provision of services. This book addresses the need for an integration of service and management in multimedia networks in order to facilitate greater accuracy and quality in the services provided. The book aims to disseminate all facets of network and service management in broadband networks and multimedia services while providing an overview of state-of-the-art research and implementation experiences in the field.

The transportation of multimedia over the network requires timely and errorless transmission much more strictly than other data. This had led to special protocols and to special treatment in multimedia applications (telephony, IP-TV, streaming) to overcome network issues. This book begins with an overview of the vast market combined with the user’s expectations. The base mechanisms of the audio/video coding (H.26x etc.) are explained to understand characteristics of the generated network traffic. Further chapters treat common specialized underlying IP network functions which cope with multimedia data in conjunction which special time adaption measures. Based on those standard functions these chapters can treat uniformly SIP, H.248, High-End IP-TV, Webcast, Signage etc. A special section is devoted to home networks which challenge high-end service delivery due to possibly unreliable management. The whole book treats concepts described in accessible IP-based standards and which are implemented broadly. The book is aimed at graduate students/practitioners with good basic knowledge in computer networking. It provides the reader with all concepts of currently used IP technologies of how to deliver multimedia efficiently to the end user.

Welcome to the third International Conference on Management of Multimedia Networks and Services (MMNS'2000) in Fortaleza (Brazil)! The first MMNS was held in Montreal ( Canada) in july 1997 and the second MMNS was held in Versailles (France) in November 1998. The MMNS conference takes place every year and a half and is aimed to be a truly international event by bringing together researchers and practitioners from all around the world and by organising the conference each time in a different continent/country. Over the past several years, there has been a considerable amount of research within the fields of multimedia networking and network management. Much of that work has taken place within the context of managing Quality-of Service in broadband integrated services digital networks such as the A TM, and more recently in IP-based networks, to respond to the requirements of emerging multimedia applications. A TM networks were designed to support multimedia traffic with diverse characteristics and can be used as the transfer mode for both wired and wireless networks. A new set of Internet protocols is being developed to provide better quality of service, which is a prerequisite for supporting multimedia applications. Multimedia applications have a different set of requirements, which impacts the design of the underlying communication network as well as its management. Several QoS management mechanisms intervening at different layers of the communication network are required including QoS-routing, QoS-based transport, QoS negotiation, QoS adaptation, FCAPS management, and mobility management.