The Multimedia Internet Information Technology: Transmission, Processing, and Storage Series Editor: Jack Keil Wolf University of California at San Diego LaJolla, California Editorial Board: Robert J. McEliece California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California John Proakis Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts William H. Tranter Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Virginia Coded Modulation Systems John B. Anderson and Ame Svensson Communication System Design Using DSP Algorithms: With Laboratory Experiments for the TMS320C6701 and TMS320C6711 Steven A. Tretter Interference Avoidance Methods for Wireless Systems Dimitrie C. Popescu and Christopher Rose MIMO Signals and Systems Horst J. Bessai Multi-Carrier Digital Communications: Theory and Applications of OFDM Ahmad R.S. Bahai, Burton R. Saltzberg, and Mustafa Ergen The Multimedia Internet Stephen Weinstein Performance Analysis and Modeling of Digital Transmission Systems William Turin Stochastic Image Processing Chee Sun Won and Robert M. Gray Wireless Communications Systems and Networks Mohsen Guizani A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher. The Multimedia Internet Stephen Weinstein Communication Theory and Technology Consultants, Summit, NJ ^ Springer A CLP. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 0-387-23681-3 © 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed in the United States of America. (IBT) 987654321 springeronline.com To our grandchildren Andrew, Matthew, Cayenn and Simone. PREFACE and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is a light technical introduction to the three technical foundations for multimedia applications across the Internet: communications (principles, technologies and networking), compressive encoding of digital media, and Internet protocols and services. The QoS (Quality of Service) required for audio, image and video media comes from communication networks with high capacity and provisions for multiple user access, from the compressive encodings that hold information rates to levels consistent with current storage media and communication networks, and from the packet servicing and media stream control capabilities specified in Internet protocols and services. All of these contributing systems elements are explained in this book through descriptive text and numerous illustrative figures. The result is a book pitched toward non-specialists, preferably with technical background, who want descriptive tutorial introductions to the three foundation areas. Much of the book is accessible to the non-technical reader as well. Some sections are more technical than others and it was my original intention to flag them, but they, too, contain introductory and explanatory materials and I decided to let the reader decide what she or he wants to read, glance at, or skip altogether. The book should be especially useful to individuals active in one or another foundation area, or in industries that rely on electronic media, who are curious about the whole range of Internet-oriented technologies supporting multimedia applications. Those who wish to go beyond the contents here can consult the references, including many Internet RFCs (requests for comments) and useful Web sites. "Multimedia", already a shaky noun as well as an adjective, can be broadly defined as electronically augmented or generated objects and experiences that appeal to the senses. "Media" can be single or multiple in a communication session and should not be confused with transmission media such as optical fiber, coaxial cable, radio, and copper wire. There are plenty of electronic media products and services, some long established such as broadcast, cable, satellite television; audio and video recordings; and computer games. There are others relatively new such as retrieval, exchange, and streaming of media objects on the World Wide Web; Internet radio and television; and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) with its generalization into multimedia conferencing. Multimedia has connotations of computer processing and is now firmly rooted in IP internetworking, but there is no clear line dividing current concepts from past examples of electrically-supported yiil The Multimedia Internet sensory experiences. The Multimedia Internet is simply a continuation of the past 125 years of technology development for communications and entertainment, relying now on cheap and powerful computer processing, broadband networking, packet communication using IP, and techniques for media QoS across the Internet. Although QoS capabilities have so far been talked about more than built into the Internet, and some people doubt that IP networks will ever provide the level of QoS associated with circuit-switched networks such as the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), multimedia applications are already flourishing on the Internet. They will go much farther as broadband access, wired and wireless, becomes widely available to users wherever they are. This will be encouraged by a proliferation of Internet appliances in which the multimedia Internet is imbedded rather than being consciously utilized. A good example is a wireless Internet radio - hopefully with earphones - able to select from thousands of stations from around the world. Barring further delays from the intellectual property disputes that were a significant impediment at the time of writing, we may soon see these carried by teenagers around shopping centers, schools, and city streets. Significant advances in digital audio/video encoding, optical and wireless communications technologies, high-speed access networks, and IP-based media streaming have made the multimedia Internet feasible. These technologies, described in this book, are among the most important foundations for the present and near-future Multimedia Internet, but the book does not claim to provide a comprehensive examination of all relevant technologies. A number of important areas are largely or entirely outside the scope of this book, including systems for media program composition and production; media synchronization, storage, and search; user interfaces; "groupware" for collaborations across the Internet; new media such as virtual reality environments and personalities, gestures, facial expressions, touch, and smell; caching and proxy server techniques; routing protocols; authentication and security systems; and communication coding techniques, network design, traffic engineering, and network management. Despite these omissions, the book answers the question, from the author's personal perspective, of "What are the important technical concepts for delivery of audio/visual and other media through the Internet?" It should meet the needs of most readers in content and technology industries who want to know more about aspects of media delivery outside of their own specialties, and are willing to consult the references for additional technical details. Some notes on notation: -Block diagrams indicate a processing sequence. In the example here, signals a(t) and b(t) enter a processing unit, a "black box" that yields a signal m(t), which is multiplied by a signal c(t) to generate s(t), to which n(t) is added to yield y(t). Most implementation details of black boxes are left to specialized textbooks. a(t) m(t),,0 s(t)^. ^ processor b(t)T c(t)T n(t)' -The letter "t" represents time, with typical units of sec, ms (millisecond=10rk-"3 sec), |xs (microsecond=10"^ sec), ns (nanosecond=10'^ sec, and ps (picosecond=10"^^ sec). Preface and Acknowledgements IX -The letter "f represents frequency, with typical units of Hz (Hertz or cycles/sec), KHz (kiloHertz=10^ Hz), MHz (megaHertz=10^ Hz), and GHz (gigaHertz=10^ Hz). Bandwidth, too, is measured in Hertz, e.g. "the 300Hz-3KHz band". -The Greek letter ">-" represents wavelength, which is convertible to frequency as described in Chapter 3, and comes in typical units of nm (nanometer=10"^ meter). -Data rate is designated in bps (bits per second), kbps, mbps, gbps, and tbps (terabits/sec= 10^^ bps). It may also be expressed in Bps (bytes per second), where a byte is 8 bits. I may forget and use "Kbps" with a capital K. -Computer memory is measured in power of two multiples of Bytes, e.g., KB = 2^^ = 1024 bytes, MB = 2^^ = 1,048,576 bytes, with capital K or B. -Web addresses (URLs) are presented without the http:// prefix, e.g., www.whitehouse.gov. - References are enclosed in brackets. For example, [RFC3550] refers to an entry in the alphabetical reference list. When a Web address is bracketed as a reference, e.g., [www.ieee.org], there is no entry in the Index. Two or more