CS 410 Top: Introduction to Multimedia Networking

Credit Hours: 4
Course Coordinator: N/A
Course Description: Introductory course in multimedia computing and networking. Explores the interaction between multimedia data and the systems that need to support multimedia data such as audio and video. Topics that will be covered in the course include: compression technologies, multimedia formats such as JPEG and MPEG, multimedia streaming over reservation-based and best-effort networks, multicasting of multimedia data, and systems support for multimedia computing. Prerequisites: CS 333.
Prerequisites: Operating Systems (CS333).
Goals: The main goal of CS 410/510 Introduction to Multimedia Networking is to teach students the necessary operating system and networking techniques necessary to support continuous multimedia data. The first part of the course will focus on compression technologies for regular data, image data, audio data, and video data. This will allow the students to understand the complex interactions between highly compressed data and how they map onto the computing systems that support them. The second part of the course will focus on multimedia streaming over reservation-based and best-effort networks. The students will learn how to use buffering as a technique to minimize the overall resources required to support reservation-based networks. The students will also learn how compressed media data can be adapted to the available network resources for best-effort networks. The last part of the course will focus on the extensions to operating systems and file systems necessary to support multimedia computing.

Upon the successful completion of this course students will be able to:

  1. Explain how lossless data compression technologies including Huffman, Run-Length Encoding, Lempel Ziv Welch (LZW) work.
  2. Explain the capture and representation of audio signals.
  3. Explain the capture and representation of image and video data.
  4. Explain the techniques used to compress image and video data, including GIF, JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.261, and H.263.
  5. Explain the umbrella audio and video conferencing protocols SIP and H.323.
  6. Explain distribution mechanisms for multimedia data including HTTP.
  7. Explain buffering techniques that can be employed to minimize the effects of variable-bit-rate compressed video on reservation-based networks.
  8. Explain the techniques that can be used to adapt a video stream to the underlying network resources for best-effort networks.
  9. Explain the real-time systems techniques that can allow an operating system to support digital audio and video.
  10. Construct a C or C++ program to compress an input file and calculate the resulting compression ratio.
  11. Construct a C or C++ program that can talk to web servers connected to the Internet.
Textbooks: Ralf Steinmetz & Klara Nahrstedt, Multimedia Systems, Springer-Verlag, (ISBN:3540408673)
References: None.
Major Topics:

  • Sound, image, and video signals – their capture and representation.
  • Lossless data compression techniques: Huffman, Run-Length Encoding,LZW
  • Audio compression techniques: G.711, A-law, U-law, MP3
  • Image compression techniques: GIF, JPEG, PPM
  • Video compression techniques: M-JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.261, H.263
  • Networking protocol review: TCP/IP, HTTP
  • Multimedia integration technologies: SIP, H.323
  • Multimedia streaming over reservation-based networks
  • Multimedia streaming and adaptation over best-effort networks
  • Efficient techniques to adaptively alter the requirements of multimedia streams
  • Multimedia multicast streaming
  • Multimedia operating systems
  • Architectural support for multimedia processing
Laboratory Exercises: Approximately three to four programming projects will be assigned.

CAC Category Credits Core Advanced
Data Structures 0.75
Algorithms 1.50
Software Design 1.00
Computer Architecture 0.10
Programming Languages 0.30

Oral and Written Communications: Students are not required to submit written reports, nor make oral presentations.
Social and Ethical Issues: The ramifications of copyrighted image, video, and audio data will be discussed for approximately an hour. This will include a discussion of technologies used to manage such copyright infringements.
Theoretical Content: None.
Problem Analysis: Students are assigned a several programming assignments. They will be given an informal problem definition that they must analyze in order to develop a solution.
Solution Design: The programming assignments will require the students to design and implement entire programs that accomplish a number of goals.