Code

COMPM034 (Also taught as: COMPGZ05 Multimedia)

Year

4

Prerequisites

Term

2

Taught By

Mark Handley (100%)

Aims

The aims of this course are to describe the ways in which multimedia information is captured, processed, and rendered, to introduce multimedia quality of service (QoS) and to compare subjective and objective methods of assessing user satisfaction, to analyse the ways in which multimedia data is transmitted across networks, and to discuss privacy and copyright issues in the context of multimedia.

Learning Outcomes

The ability to: describe different realisations of multimedia tools and the way in which they are used; analyse the structure of the tools in the light of low-level constraints imposed by the adoption of various QoS schemes (ie bottom up approach); analyse the effects of scale and use on both presentation and lower-level requirements (ie top down approach); state the properties of different media streams; compare and contrast different network protocols and to describe mechanisms for providing QoS guarantees in the network.

Introduction and overview.

Discrete Cosine Transform
Coefficient Coding

Audio Coding

Analogue and digital form:
- Sample rate, bits/sample, nyquist rate, CD audio
Compression techniques:
- PCM, ADPCM, LPC, GSM/CELP, MP3/AAC

Video

TV Standards:
- Interlacing vs progressive scan, PAL, NTSC, SECAM
Video digitisation
Raw Image Representation:
- RGB, YUV411, YUV422, Indexed color vs true colour
Image Compression:
- GIF, JPEG, Motion JPEG:
Video Compression:
- Motion estimation
- Motion compensation
Video Compression Schemes:
- H.261, H.263
- MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MPEG 4
Video Adaptation:
- Sender-side adaptation, buffering, VBR->CBR conversion

System Streams

MPEG program and transport streams
H.221 framing (for ISDN)
IP-based transport:
- packet loss
- TCP vs UDP
- Application-level framing
- RTP
- H.261 as example of payload format
- DCCP
Audio/Video synchronization
- RTCP
- MPEG system stream

Signalling

H.323
SIP and SDP
RTSP
Megaco

OS Issues

Buffering
Scheduling

Describing Network Traffic

Traffic patterns
Application requirements
QoS parameters and descritions

Congestion control and Resource Management

TCP congestion control
Real-time traffic congestion control
Queue management:
- Random Early Detection + other AQM
- Explicit Congection Notification (ECN)
- Scheduling mechanisms (FQ, WFQ)

Enhanced Quality of Service

Intserv
Resource reSerVation Protocol (RSVP)
Diffserv

IP Multicast

Service Model
Layered transmission
Multicast congestion control

Digital rights management

Legal issues
Watermarking

Lecture presentations

The course has the following assessment components:

• Written Examination (2.5 hours, 85%)
• Coursework Section (1 piece, 15%)

To pass this course, students must:

• Obtain an overall pass mark of 50% for all sections combined

The examination rubric is:
Answer THREE questions out of FIVE. All questions carry equal marks.