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Springer / Special Issue on Multimedia Network/ Service Management

The evolving Interactive Multimedia (IMM)services require the development of flexible and easilyadaptable design tools that can interoperate with theunderlying broadband communication network. In this paper, we adopt a design philosophy based onthe Intelligent Network (IN) concept. The main advantageof this approach is the transparency of theservice-specific features to the underlying signalingsystem.Hence, a fast introduction of demanding services becomespossible even if the signaling of the network is notsophisticated enough to fully cover the requirements ofIMM services. The standard International TelecommunicationUnion (ITU) ServiceIndependent Block (SIB)-based methodology is used as abasis and further extended, where necessary, to covernew requirements, not originally predicted forNarrowband-Integrated Services Digital Network (N-ISDN), but arisingfrom IMM services. The paper further proceeds with thedevelopment of an Interactive Multimedia Object ClassLibrary (IMOCL) which adopts a high-levelobject-oriented approach that supports an easy evolution ofIN-based service design towards implementation. TheIMOCL is kept generic to the most possible extent aimingto provide a common framework for the design of a wide variety of IMM services using the INconcept. The IMOCL encompasses service managementfunctionality enabling the designer and provider of anIN service to manage the newly introduced service. Both ITU SIB-based and IMOCL methodologies, togetherwith the standard Specification and Description Language(SDL) technique are demonstrated in the design ofselected parts of a typical Video on Demand (VoD) service.