Inter and intra media-object QoS provisioning in adaptive formatters

Abstract

The development of hypermedia/multimedia systems requires the implementation of an element, usually known as formatter, which is in charge of receiving the specification of a document (structure, media-object relationships and presentation descriptions) and controlling its presentation. The process of controlling and maintaining the presentation of a hyperdocument with an output of acceptable quality is a QoS orchestration problem, which needs to be treated by formatters in two related levels: the inter media-object and the intra media-object orchestration. This paper aims at discussing the issues associated to QoS provisioning in hypermedia systems, focusing on the design and implementation of formatters. We propose a QoS framework for hypermedia formatters based on a generic quality of service model for communication environments. The paper also comments the experience obtained in the framework instantiation for the HyperProp system formatter.