Interactive multimedia (inm) relates to the network delivery of rich digital content, including audio and video, to client devices

11.7. Case study: ATM transmission of multiplexed-MPEG streams. Introduction
Available ATM network throughputs, in the order of Gb/s, allow broadband applications to interconnect using ATM infrastructures. We will consider, as a case study to give some intuition about the main elements that will be found in a telecommunication system-on-a-chip, the architectural design of an ATM ASIC. The architecture is conceived to give service to applications in which we will need to multiplex and transport multimedia information to an end-node through an ATM network. Interactive multimedia and mobile multimedia are examples of applications that will use such a system.
Interactive multimedia (INM) relates to the network delivery of rich digital content, including audio and video, to client devices (e.g. desktop computer, TV and set-top box), typically as part of an application having user-controlled interactions. It includes interactive movies, where viewers can explore different subplots, interactive games, where players take different paths based on previous event outcomes, training-on-demand, in which training content tunes to each student existing knowledge, experience, and rate of information absorption, interactive marketing and shopping, digital libraries, video-on-demand and so on.
Mobile multimedia applies in general to every scenario in which a remote delivery of expertise to mobile agents will be needed. It includes applications in computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) where mobile workers with difficult problems receive advice to enhance the efficiency and quality of their tasks or emergency-response applications (ambulance services, police, fire brigades).
A system offering this service of multiplexing and transport through ATM networks should meet the following requirements if it wants to cover applications as explained above:

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  The system should easily scale the number of streams and the bandwidth associated to each of them to accommodate future service demand increases.
  
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  The system should fairly share the available multiplex bandwidth between all different sources. This feature will enable either to increase the number of streams to be multiplexed when the available bandwidth is fixed or to reduce the necessary bandwidth to multiplex a fixed number of them.
  
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  The system should guarantee a bandwidth reservation if sources with heterogeneous traffic patterns want to be simultaneously served.
  
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  The system should be able to give service to mobile/portable sources connected by either wireless or infrared links.
  
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  The system should be able to control the quality of the service (QoS) offered because if no control is applied in order to keep it constant, image quality degradation will depend sharply on transient congestion conditions in the network when information is dropped randomly.
  
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  At last, but not least, the system should be integrated on a single chip.