| This thesis examines the ability to coordinate the transmission of separate data streams (possibly consisting of graphics, sound, text, and/or video) in a multimedia group application. Most of the work that has been done with respect to managing distributed multimedia data streams is in the area of guaranteeing rates of presentation over a network and has been with respect to a single source and/or a single destination. This thesis describes a program that provides a form of multi-cast transmission for independent streams of data that must be presented together at their destinations. We give the name Ensembles to these collections of streams of data. The program provides coordination of Ensembles for multiple senders and receivers in multiple groups without referring to a global time mechanism. The coordination is accomplished by two mechanisms: specification of a header attached to each transmitted segment, that carries with it the distribution information for that segment, and an algorithm for using the header with low computational overhead and minimal buffering. |
