An event-driven, user-centric, QoS-aware middleware framework for ubiquitous multimedia applications

In this paper, we present a novel QoS-aware middleware framework, that seamlessly enables ubiquitous delivery of QoS-aware multimedia applications. The QoS management functions are triggered by not only resource fluctuations but also the user's behavior, movement or even light and time. Those activation events are described using asynchronous messages encoded in XML format. Moreover, the QoS-aware middleware services are no longer targeted to applications or devices but users. The QoS management functions are individualized according to the user's preferences and life routines. We have implemented a prototype of our middleware framework as part of the Gaia OS [4], an active space enabling infrastructure. Our experiments with the ubiquitous multimedia streaming application show the soundness of our framework.