A Multimedia Terminal Supporting Adaptation for QoS Control

This paper addresses the end-to-end quality of service (QoS) guarantees and control for multimedia content delivery over heterogeneous networks, with a particular focus on end user terminal perspective. A multimedia terminal which embeds different probes to monitor network conditions and end user perceptual characteristics has been conceived and implemented. A series of QoS mapping between perception and adaptation spaces are yielded by means of the parameters provided by the QoS probes, facilitating content adaptation enabled by any generic adaptation server or intermediate service. Such a design approach illustrates a possible architecture for next-generation multimedia end user system supporting QoS control and content adaptation over a heterogeneous delivery chain.