Broadcasting and Communication Convergent Network Based on MPEG-21: Design and Implementation of Multimedia Service Framework

In this paper, we present a practical implementation of the MPEG-21 multimedia framework for broadcasting and communication convergent services. MPEG-21 standard technology was exploited to build a convergent service framework. Using this framework, a service model and several scenarios have been successfully designed and implemented. In addition, interoperability, which is the main objective of a multimedia framework, especially in a convergent environment consisting of heterogeneous networks and various types of devices, has been addressed in detail. The experimental results show that the implemented test bed provides a next-generation multimedia service; that is, universal multimedia access (UMA), meeting the requirements of a broadcasting and communication convergent environment.