Wireless access architectures for video applications: the approach proposed in the MEDIEVAL project

Video transmission is expected to be the next big thing in personal communication systems. While text messaging applications have already experienced an explosive growth, the exchange of multimedia content is still lacking architectural solutions which enable it to become the next killer application. The EU project MEDIEVAL (MultimEDia transport for mobIlE Video AppLications) [1] aims at filling this gap. In this paper we describe the approaches envisioned by the project for what concerns the data link layer, with special emphasis on wireless access and its related cross-layer issues. After presenting some general project aspects, we will review the state of the art and enumerate several open issues, concerning the identification of the most suitable radio technologies for video support, as well as their integration and required enhancements to enable efficient video transport.