On Realizing a Broadband Kernel for Multimedia Networks

We describe a prototype implementation of a broadband kernel, an open programming environment that facilitates the easy creation of network services and provides mechanisms for efficient resource allocation. We present a service creation methodology and show how scalable multimedia network services can be constructed from a set of broadband kernel services. As a proof of concept, we built a multi-party teleconferencing service upon the broadband kernel. The service creation framework has the following characteristics: binding of different classes of transport protocols to the application, dynamic renegotiation of application QOS using the signalling network and, support for multiple resource reservation algorithms.