JQOS: a QoS-based Internet videoconferencing system using the Java media framework (JMF)

The heterogeneity feature of the Internet makes it hard for a single real-time multicast stream with unique or static quality of service (QoS) support to provide good service to all receivers. Applying network-level QoS guarantees or application-level QoS adaptations are often considered effective solutions to this issue. However, the current proposed protocols or schemes have problems in scalability and implementation. This paper proposes a simple but efficient application-level dynamic QoS control mechanism and demonstrates it via implementing a QoS-based Internet videoconferencing system using Sun Microsystems' Java media framework (JMF). The dynamic QoS self-adaptation model has achieved the goal in receiving clear audio and visually useful video. The intelligent QoS request-handling algorithm may adjust the source transmission to satisfy most of, if not all, session receivers' requests. The receiver's QoS self-adaptation ability allows session receivers to apply their individual interests on the receiving streams.