Network-Based Content Adaptation of Streaming Media using MPEG-21 DIA and SDPng

The dynamic adaptation of multimedia content in distributed heterogeneous environments is a key enabler for next generation ubiquitous and pervasive services. Systems implementing the Universal Multimedia Access (UMA) approaches are predominantly combinations of MPEG-centric and/or proprietary solutions. However, it is important to reach interoperability between the IETF approaches for multimedia-session establishment and control and the MPEG-21 efforts for metadata-driven adaptation, in order to enable personalized multimedia delivery for ubiquitous users. In this paper, we present a model for converging of IETF and MPEG-21 descriptions for streaming media. We introduce the architecture of a network-based multimedia stream-adaptation service to enable the communication between heterogeneous terminals over heterogeneous networks. We demonstrate how this service utilizes the converged session description model and how it can be deployed inside special adaptation nodes within any part of the network to achieve dynamic content adaptation.