The Multimedia Internet Terminal (MInT)

The Multimedia Internet Terminal (MINT)1 is a flexible multimedia tool set that allows the establishment and control of multimedia sessions across the Internet. The system architecture is fully distributed, with no central components. For each participant, a coordinating application manages a set of loosely coupled media and control agents. Using the coordinating application, session members can control the sending and receiving of several audio and video streams, invite other users to the session and negotiate the order in which members are allowed speak. The different components of MINT are separate processes that are independent from one another, yet can easily communicate with each other using a simple interprocess communication protocol based on local multicast. Individual components can be replaced without affecting the operation of other components. The same media agents can be used in applications ranging from media-on-demand retrieval to Internet telephony and distance learning, simply by using different control tools. To improve the quality of service of the multimedia sessions MINT is enhanced with a suite of QoS control mechanisms including resource reservation based on RSVP, adaptive media control and the ability to send video data in hierarchically layered streams. Thus, the tool set can accommodate a range of capabilities and available network bandwidths in heterogeneous environments.