Yima: real-time multimedia storage and retrieval

Yima is a scalable, real-time streaming architecture that enables applications such as video-on-demand and distance learning on a large scale. While Yima incorporates lessons learned from first generation research prototypes, it also complies with industry standards in content format (MPEG-4) and communication protocols (RTP/RTSP). Yima improves upon both research and commercial approaches by using a bipartite design and alternative approaches to handling variable-bit-rate (VBR) video. We also integrated a selective retransmission protocol into Yima's RTP server to recover from packet loss. Lastly, we tweaked available hardware and software to achieve certain objectives (e.g., playback of HDTV streams on an HDTV monitor). Yima is operational and supports a variety of display bandwidths.