A multimedia networking-based approach to the development of distributed virtual instruments

This paper proposes a novel approach centered on the multimedia internetworking to develop distributed virtual instruments. Multimedia internetworking refers to network infrastructures, protocols, models, applications and techniques being currently deployed over the Internet to support multimedia applications, e.g., videoconferencing, VOD, shared workspaces. It is applied to broaden the concept of virtual instrument and enable new measurement patterns leveraging efficiency and interactivity. A Distributed Virtual Instrument (DVI) is a virtual instrument split into possibly multiple and independent parts, sender and receiver, which are linked by real-time continuous media and control streams. Sender and receiver are built by using open, composable and modular components based on a time sensitive actor framework and glued by multimedia middleware. A prototype is described to demonstrate the potential and the benefits of the proposed approach.