Networking requirements of the Rapport multimedia conferencing system

The Rapport multimedia conferencing system supports interactive real-time distributed conferences among two or more people. Rapport executes on personal workstations interconnected by data and voice networks. It is designed to help people emulate face-to-face conferences as closely as possible with their workstations. These conferences can be of different type, including phone conversations, group meetings, or lectures. The authors describe the Rapport system and elaborate on its networking requirements. Based on experience with their initial prototype system, the authors highlight some of the current networking limitations and examine future directions, such as broadband communication, for alleviating these problems