On Security Architecture and Functionality of Distributed Multimedia

Traditionally, security and functional features of multimedia applications have been designed largely separately. Various new requirements of and constraints on many emerging distributed multimedia applications, however, have necessitated a joint consideration of the security architecture and functionality of distributed multimedia. In this paper, we highlight the importance of the inter-play between security primitives, signal processing and networking technologies. We provide an overview of several recent approaches that aimed to address this joint design issue, including format-compliant content protection, fully scalable content protection and consumption, and signal-processing based content and network security. We discuss some potential implications in the context of emerging peer-to-peer and ad hoc sensor networks.