Internetworking multimedia

This is a book about multimedia communication using the Internet. Since very early research experiments in the 1970s until the 1990s, multimedia has grown rapidly as a presence on the network, even though the Internet was originally developed to support data communications between computers. The whole definition of `data' has broadened, and we can now capture, compress, store, decompress, replay, send and receive digital audio and video almost as easily as files of text. We have started using computers and the Internet increasingly as a means of communication, as a replacement for the telephone, for conferencing and for delivering classes and seminars to remote participants. Internetworking Multimedia describes the technologies and systems that make this possible. It is not only descriptive, but prescriptive in that it gives a models for developing multimedia distributed systems which as well as being suited for many purposes is also fun. An ideal read for engineers and students at Master's level, both implementing and studying multimedia on the Internet, as well as essential reference reading for network managers and administrators handling both public and private systems, computer industry product developers and IS managers.