Multimedia networking issues for digital video libraries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a tutorial and survey on recent advances in multimedia networking from an integrated perspective of both video networking and building digital video libraries. The nature of video networking, coupled with various recent developments in standards, proposals and applications, poses great challenges to the research and industrial communities working in this area. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents an insightful analysis for recent and emerging multimedia applications in digital video libraries and on video coding standards and their applications in digital libraries. Emphasis is given on those standards and mechanisms that enable multimedia content adaptation fully interoperable according to the vision of Universal Multimedia Access vision. Findings – The tutorial helps elucidate the similarities and differences among the considered standards and networking applications. A number of research trends and challenges are identified, and selected promising solutions are discussed. This practice would needle further thoughts on the development of this area and open-up more research and application opportunities. Research limitations/implications – The paper does not provide methodical studies of networking application scenarios for all the discussed video coding standards and Quality of Service (QoS) management mechanisms. Practical implications – The paper provides an overview of which technologies/mechanisms are being used broadly in networking scenarios of digital video libraries. The discussed networking scenarios bring together video coding standards and various emerging wireless networking paradigms toward innovative application scenarios. Originality/value – QoS mechanisms and video coding standards that support multimedia applications for digital video libraries need to become well-known by library managers and professional associations in the fields of libraries and archives. The comprehensive overview and critiques on existing standards and application approaches offer a valuable reference for researchers and system developers in related research and industrial communities.