A modular environment for modelling and simulating multimedia conferencing over interconnected networks

To carry out a realistic simulation of multimedia communications, it is necessary for a simulation environment to be able to model a number of traffic conditions for different media streams, and to support a variety of network systems operating in a set of interconnected networks. In this paper, we describe a modular environment, called M5, for modelling, simulating and analysing multimedia conferencing over interconnected heterogeneous networks. While the high-level simulation is driven by discrete events, the low-level network simulations are implemented as computational engines based on the statistical models of the individual network systems. In addition, the environment is equipped with software modules for network specification, traffic generation and result visualisation. The simulation of the two popular network standards, namely CSMA/CD and ATM networks, will also be discussed in the paper.