A Resource Reservation Scheme for Synchronized Distributed Multimedia Sessions

Guarantees of services in a networked environment are provided by the proper allocation and scheduling of network and system resources. A lot of research in packet scheduling, QoS routing, traffic multiplexing, etc. has been aimed at providing deterministic or statistical service guarantees, while utilizing resources efficiently. In this paper, we propose a resource reservation scheme for a class of multimedia presentations. We characterize this class of multimedia presentations as synchronized distributed multimedia sessions, which we believe are important components of many multimedia applications. In addition to multimedia presentations, the reservation scheme applies to applications with synchronized resource requirements. Based on resource inquiry and interval analysis, the scheme is also able to find feasible resource allocation schedules for resource reservation requests. Built upon a layer of resource abstraction, the scheme suits well with today's heterogeneous network environment.