An Interactive Telelecture System with Hybrid ATM/IP Networking

Jörg Liebeherr*          Steven R. Brown**          Rick Albertson***   

(To appear: Multimedia Tools and Applications Journal, Kluwer Academic Publishers)


* Department of Electrical Engineering
Polytechnic University
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Email: jorg@catt.poly.edu

** Department of Computer Science
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Email: srb8d@cs.virginia.edu

*** Litton-FiberCom
Roanoke, Virginia 24012
Email: rea@fibercom.com

Abstract

Currently, there is much debate whether ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) or IP (Internet Protocol) is the
better internetworking technology for multiparty multimedia applications. Proponents of ATM argue that
only a connection-oriented network can satisfy the stringent timeliness requirements of high-quality audio
and video data. Proponents of the Internet emphasize the scalability and flexibility of connectionless
networking. In this paper a multiparty multimedia telelecture system, called Distance Learning Controller
(DLC), is presented that uses both ATM and IP, thus, attempting to exploit the advantages of both
technologies, without suffering the drawbacks of either technology. The DLC system uses ATM for
transmission of broadcast-quality video and CD-quality audio, and IP-over-ATM for low-bandwidth
applications and conference control functions. This paper describes the hardware and software components
of the DLC system.