A framework for adaptive resource management in a multimedia operating system

In order to support the diverse mix of multimedia applications being developed, recent research has focused on providing the quality of service (QoS) required by such applications. One example of such work in the end-system is the Nemesis operating system which is used as a basis for the work described and which provides the basic mechanisms and infrastructure needed to give out meaningful QoS guarantees to applications. However, there is still a need for a resource management system on top of the low-level QoS mechanisms to co-ordinate the allocation of QoS guarantees for limited physical resources amongst the user's applications. This paper presents a resource management system which dynamically balances the allocation of QoS guarantees for end-system resources amongst applications in such a way as to maximise, at any given point in time, the user's perceived utility as specified via user-defined resource allocation policies.