An internetworking architecture for multimedia communication over heterogeneous networks

Distributed multimedia applications of the future will run on heterogeneous networks. Initially deployed on traditional LANs like Token Ring and FDDI there will be a long period of transition to ATM-based LANs that offer better support for continuous media traffic like video and audio. In parallel, public ATM services emerge that enable the wide-area interconnection of LANs. In this paper we identify the issues involved in the interconnection of heterogeneous networks for multimedia communication. We discuss the interaction of traffic management, signalling and data transmission protocols and present alternatives in the protocol architectures.