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This research proposes an innovative fault-tolerant media content list management technology applied to the smart robot domain.

A fault tolerant Content List Management Unit (CLMU) for real-time streaming systems focusing on smart robot claw machines is proposed to synchronize and manage the hyperlink stored on media servers. The fault-tolerant mechanism is realized by the self-healing method. A media server allows exchanging the hyperlink within the network through the CLMU mechanism.

Internet users can access the current multimedia information, and the multimedia information list can be rearranged appropriately. Furthermore, the service of the proposed multimedia system should be uninterrupted even when the master media server fails. Therefore, one of the slave media servers enables the Content List Service (CLS) of the proposed CLMU and replaces the defunct master media server.

The recovery time is less than 1.5 seconds. The multimedia transmission is not interrupted while any one of the media servers keeps functioning. The proposed method can serve to stabilize the system of media servers in a smart robot domain.

Streaming audio/video contents over the Internet requires large network bandwidth and timely delivery of media data. A streaming session is generally long and also needs a large I/O bandwidth at the streaming server. A streaming server, however, has limited network and I/O bandwidth. For this reason, a streaming server alone cannot scale a streaming service well. An entire audio/video media file often cannot be cached due to intellectual property right concerns of the content owners, security reasons, and also due to its large size. This makes a streaming service hard to scale using conventional proxy servers. Media file compression using variable‐bit‐rate (VBR) encoding is necessary to get constant quality video playback although it produces traffic bursts. Traffic bursts either waste network bandwidth or cause hiccups in the playback. Large network latency and jitter also cause long start‐up delay and unwanted pauses in the playback, respectively. In this paper, we propose a proxy based constant‐bit‐rate (CBR)‐transmission scheme for VBR‐encoded videos and a scalable streaming scheme that uses a CBRtransmission scheme to stream stored videos over the Internet. Our CBR‐streaming scheme allows a server to transmit a VBRencoded video at a constant bit rate, close to its mean encoding bit rate, and deals with the network latency and jitter issues efficiently in order to provide quick and hiccup free playback without caching an entire media file. Our scalable streaming scheme also allows many clients to share a server stream. We use prefix buffers at the proxy to cache the prefixes of popular videos, to minimize the start‐up delay and to enable near mean bit rate streaming from the server as well as from the proxy. We use smoothing buffers at the proxy not only to eliminate jitter and traffic burst effects but also to enable many clients to share the same server stream. We present simulation results to demonstrate the effectiveness of our streaming scheme.

To date e‐Learning material has usually been accessed and delivered through a central web server. As the number of users, the amount of information, the frequency of accesses and the volume of data increase, together with the introduction of multimedia streaming applications, a decentralized content distribution architecture is necessary. In this paper we propose the adaptation of the well‐known scalable Content Distribution Networks (CDN) schema for media streaming supported e‐Learning using a novel architecture named COMODIN SCDN (COoperative Media On‐Demand on the InterNet ‐ Streaming Content Distribution Network). COMODIN SCDN utilises surrogates as edge content delivery nodes, incorporates a redirection mechanism able to route requesting clients to the closest copy of the content, encompasses distributed content delivery and management mechanisms to improve the speed, reliability, and scalability of user access to prevent flash‐crowds. Preliminary results in testbeds have shown that COMODIN SCDN increases the efficacy of information distribution through intra and inter‐campus area netwoks. This overlay network will provide learners and educators a scalable, balanced and expeditious access to e‐Learning contents.

The convergence of multimedia, virtual reality and the Internet is promoting low‐cost multimedia virtual environments which are easily accessible to large network communities. These environments, which facilitate usability and enhance user experience, are very suitable for supporting user‐oriented application domains such as e‐learning and entertainment. This paper presents a multimedia virtual environment, namely the Virtual Video Gallery, an advanced, distributed media on‐demand system which is browsable through a virtual world. By taking a virtual walk inside the gallery, the user can interactively select, preview, watch and control multimedia sessions. While the user‐centred design of the system relies on UML‐based modelling techniques, system implementation is obtained by the integration of Java, VRML and Web‐based technologies. In order to evaluate the user‐oriented effectiveness of the Virtual Video Gallery and compare it to currently available Internet‐based MoD systems, the usability testing of the system was established for deriving both summative and formative usability data.

As the use of electronic library resources increases, the demand for online support also multiplies. Information literacy and 24/7 customer support are some of the urgent issues related to research in an electronic environment that many libraries are trying to address today. This article describes an approach in meeting these challenges, the Let‐It‐V (Learning E‐Resources Through Instructional Technology Videos) project at the Texas A&M University Libraries. This study combines the use of screen‐captured videos and a streaming media encoder to produce topic‐specific videos for task‐oriented demands. It is visual, interactive, and seeks to provide just‐in‐time solutions at a point of need. On‐demand streaming is a viable, cost‐effective alternative for low bandwidth delivery of video‐enabled library instruction. The technologies involved, key development issues, lessons learned and their implications for distance learning are discussed.

This paper describes and comments on the evolution of systems librarianship in Australia through two strands – the author’s personal work experience in libraries since 1977 and her professional involvement with the Victorian Association for Library Automation (VALA). The Proceedings of the 11 VALA Conferences and the Australian journal LASIE, which has been published since 1970, are used as reference material. The results of an informal survey of VALA members and other interested Australian librarians are also incorporated.

The purpose is to enhance the capabilities of a general‐purpose IDS solution with additional knowledge of multimedia file formats and protocols, to better handle multimedia‐specific security exploits.

The authors have designed a multimedia traffic classifier, implemented as an optional preprocessor for Snort. The solution has been successfully tested with downloading and streaming traffic.

Test results confirm that the additional specialized knowledge encoded in the preprocessor results in two significant gains: trusted multimedia contents can be identified and allowed to bypass the detection engine, with substantial computational savings; the IDS is now able to detect multimedia‐specific exploits which would otherwise go unnoticed.

Not all multimedia‐related scenarios have been covered by the described implementation yet. The proposed solution is being extended to other file types and protocols, fine‐tuned, as well as tested more extensively.

Snort users interested in this work will be able to add the multimedia‐specific functionality – and enjoy the resulting benefits – with minimal effort.

The research reported in this paper is – to the authors' knowledge – the first effort to add multimedia‐specific knowledge to the operation of an IDS. In addition to being innovative, the proposed method is relevant for more than one reason, since it enhances the IDS capabilities while at the same time alleviating the computational cost of performing detailed traffic analysis in high‐speed networks.

In this paper, a Web portal is presented for multicast communication management, providing fully automatic service management with integrated provisioning of hardware equipment. The portal is based on an open and configurable object‐oriented framework, that allows self‐provisioning by the user and the seamless integration with all types of multicast application software. As its topological structure is ideally suited for multicasting, and it allows the accurate control of the transmission bandwidth, the portal focuses currently on satellite as a delivery medium. The software architecture, the implementation, and the application usage of the Web portal for multicast delivery are described.

For ten years, since Vice‐President Al Gore coined the phrase “the information highway”, people have been predicting the eventual arrival of an information age in which all the information in the world would be available to the consumer, in the comfort of his or her own home, at the touch of a button. With the rapid convergence of computing and telecommunications technologies over the last decade, the information revolution has arrived sooner than anyone had expected. While the first information highway applications are to be put to the test this summer, other applications are already being predicted that will change the very nature of commerce. The eventual impact of this revolution will not only change the way we do business, but the way we live, for ever. Explains how the new applications will affect all parts of the supply chain from customer service to distribution and how the different technologies are being brought together to create the information highway.

Reports on the first of two joint symposia to be held in South China during 1998. The Zhongshan University Symposium focused on library automation and networking, with six sessions on specific subthemes and 47 papers on such topics as information resources development and digital libraries, Internet information applications and services, resource sharing and regional cooperation. Participants at the symposium concluded that the standardisation of a Chinese encoding system to cater for all Chinese characters from China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea is a prerequisite for future cooperation and resource sharing. In addition, the panellists agreed that it is important to concentrate on developing library and information networks, especially using Internet technology and related resources.