- 1 - Data Management and QoS in Distributed Multimedia Systems − Towards an Integrated Framework −

The Quality of Service (QoS) concept is of central importance in the context of multimedia systems. Generally, multimedia systems comprise the following functional units: networks, end-to-end protocols, data management systems (DMSs), applications, human-computer interfaces, and operating systems. Obviously, the entire system is influencing QoS that is visible to human users at the human computer interface. However, the relevance of DMS aspects for QoS in multimedia systems has not been broadly recognized. In this paper, we identify QoS characteristics that are visible at the application DMS interface. Furthermore, we discuss for some QoS characteristics the corresponding mechanisms within DMSs and describe two concrete types of DMSs that aim at QoS support: realtime database systems and multimedia storage servers.