DIPCS: An interprocess communication architecture for distributed multimedia systems

This paper presents the Distributed InterProcess Communication System (DIPCS) as a framework for managing communication in a distributed multimedia system. Within DIPCS, connection level management is provided through a novel distributed process group model called ADP-Group communication. The ADP-Group paradigm defines a new type of group message passing, calledqos-reliable. Qos-reliable semantics are appropriate to controlling real-time multimedia communication, by allowing a spectrum of performance and reliability specifications to co-exist within one group. DIPCS also provides an abstract programming model of multimedia devices, easing control of a heterogeneous multimedia system. Distributed multimedia applications can be rapidly developed using simple group operation primitives. We show how ADP-Group message delivery semantics can be directly mapped into an efficient Integrated Services Network support policy.Supported by Computational Diagnostics, Inc., and the Benjamin Franklin Fund for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.Supported by the Rome Laboratory (RL) of the Air Force Material Command and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Contract F30602-93-C-0038).