Real time delivery and control mechanism of multimedia service between ATM network and Internet

This paper proposes the middleMEN (middlemen for Multimedia Environment) approach for a real time delivery and control mechanism of multimedia services between the ATM network and the Internet. MiddleMEN consists of the interworking unit and the service broker to provide a seamless multimedia service between the ATM network and the Internet. For a real time delivery of multimedia services between the ATM network and the Internet, the interworking unit of the middleMEN does the following functions: protocol conversion, data format conversion, traffic monitoring and bit-rate control. The interworking unit of the middleMEN converts the protocols of the ATM network to the Internet protocols for real time delivery. Also, it provides data format conversion, traffic monitoring and bit-rate control to overcome the bandwidth difference between the ATM network and the Internet.