Dynamic multimedia protocol stacks

Fixed end-system protocols are unable to support the wide range of applications requirements on top of current networks without adding overhead in the form of unnecessary functionality for multiple combinations of application requirements and networks.

This paper presents the Real-time Wide Area Network Dissemination Architecture Protocol (RWANDA), which dynamically configures multimedia protocol stacks to support a wide range of application requirements and to increase performance. It overcomes synchronous limitations by providing an asynchronous group communication model. Applications only pay for required quality of service (QoS) such as multicast, virtual synchrony and encrypted communication.

In RWANDA, information sources use channels to disseminate information to a potentially large and changing set of channel subscribers. RWANDA recognises the differing media characteristics and transport requirements of multimedia by providing a protocol composition framework that extends to incorporate yet unsupported communication protocols, qualities of service and optimised multimedia stacks. RWANDA provides an asynchronous foundation necessary for developing a large-scale wide area network continuous media protocol.