An experimental study for transmitting MPEG-2 streams over ATM networks

This paper presents a comparative study of the different techniques aimed at transmitting MPEG-2 streams over ATM networks, with emphasis on the presentation of practical results achieved on an experimental platform available at LSI, a laboratory of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. This study determines some tuning parameters for optimizing the implementation of distributed multimedia applications on different network technologies. The focus of this experimental study has been on non native ATM techniques like "classical IP over ATM" and "LAN emulation", as well as native ATM techniques based on direct access service primitives to AAL 5. The influence of different parameters on the resulting throughput, like packet length, buffer size, CPU speed, has been studied. Furthermore, a testing tool is being developed for assessing the transmission of MPEG-2 streams based on the practical experience achieved so far. These results will permit the evaluation of different network technologies and also help in the development of distributed multimedia applications like video-on-demand, videoconferencing and telemedicine.