Residential interactive multimedia services: a distributed approach

Despite the business risks, the vigorous investments by the technology and telecommunications industries clearly demonstrate the belief that digital video and interactive television are going to happen. The complete scenario for the provision of interactive multimedia services from the residential user point of view is considered focusing on the software components. Initially, based on the DAVIC paradigm, a reference architecture configuration that is able to provide residential interactive broadband services is presented. However, besides the hardware capabilities, the system will succeed only if it is useable and worth the time and money. Therefore, a set of service requirements is introduced, focusing on three key issues: navigation, access validation and mobility. Solutions dealing with the above issues are proposed