Media synchronization in ATM network-based distributed multimedia systems

This paper exploits the impact of the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) transport standard on the mutual synchronization of multiple media servers in a distributed multimedia system. On the basis of a bursty traffic model, we develop and analyze an effective media synchronization scheme. In our scheme the media terminal (MT), which receives continuous streams of data from different media servers, acts as the coordinator for mutual synchronization of the media servers. The correlation between the time skew of clocks in the media servers and the network transmission behavior is analyzed, with the bursty traffic of the ATM network taken into account. We quantify the correlation between the resynchronization time interval, the clock drift rate, the time skew of servers, and the network jitter. Our results suggest that in allocation of ATM network resources to virtual channels (VC), the transmission delay, cell loss probability and synchronization of clocks are equally important in distributed multimedia systems