On the Failure of Middleware to Support Multimedia Applications

1. INTRODUCTION In recent years, middleware has emerged as an important architectural element in modern computer systems. For the purposes of this paper, we define middleware to be a layer of software residing on every machine and sitting between the underlying (heterogeneous) operating system platforms and distributed applications/ services, offering a platform-independent programming model to programmers, and masking out the problems relating to distribution. Examples of middleware platforms include CORBA, DCOM, Java RMI and Jini. One notable problem however with such middleware technologies is the complete lack of support for multimedia programming. A number of extensions have been proposed to such platforms, but they are often rather flawed in that they tend to treat multimedia as a service, rather than as a fundamental aspect of the underlying middleware infrastructure. This short paper addresses this lack of support for multimedia and presents the author's own experiences in overcoming this problem. The discussion is structured as follows. Firstly, in section 2, we examine the problem of supporting multimedia in relatively stable environments, where the end systems technologies and the quality of service offered by the underlying network are fairly predictable. In section 3, we then extend the analysis to consider problems associated with ubiquitous multimedia, where, due to user mobility, both the end systems technologies and networks being employed can vary dramatically over time. Finally, section 4 presents some concluding remarks.