From Broadband Network Services to a Distributed Multimedia Support-Environment

We are on the brink of another major step in the age of “information”, stimulated by: Firstly multimedia computing characterized by a wide range of potential applications that combine information sources such as voice, graphics, hifi quality audio and video. Secondly advances in network technology which have made it feasible to build high-speed networks operating at hundreds of Mbit/s over long distances. Consequently distributed processing in the new information age will have to support the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of the new multimedia applications and be able to exploit in full the increasing capabilities of the new broadband networks.