Managing Cross-Layer Constraints for Interactive Mobile Multimedia∗

Streaming multimedia content to heterogeneous handheld devices in an real environment, under power, bandwidth and load constraints is a significant design challenge, due to the various capabilities of these devices and the real-time character of the streaming workloads. A unified framework that integrates low level architectural optimizations, OS power-saving mechanisms and adaptive middleware techniques can provide significant improvements in both the system performance and user experience. In this paper, we present such an integrated framework and investigate the trade-offs involved in managing such a distributed, real-time system, while meeting the constraints imposed by the environment and maintaining acceptable QoS levels for each client. We demonstrate how the framework, which supports tight coupling of inter-level parameters can enhance user experience on handheld devices.