The GCommS Project

GCommS stands for Group Communication Support for Distributed Multimedia Systems. The project is an EPSRC funded activity within the Distributed Multimedia Group of the Computing Department at Lancaster University and was established in 1994.

Objectives

The GCommS project is concerned with end-to-end communications support for multiparty multimedia applications. It addresses the problem of group communication at the transport layer and above at a so called distributed multimedia application platform. The main objectives are:

  • to identify services, service functions and facilites for group support and multipeer communication;

  • to develop a group communications architecture and end-to-end services, and to analyse existing services and protocols (e.g. XTP, IPv6, ATM) for their suitability to support the services of the GCommS architecture;

  • to evaluate the resulting system in terms of efficiency and flexibility and to feed the results into standardisation activities (e.g. ISO/OSI).

    Research Area

    Work items of the GCommS projekt are the identification of end-to-end services, the design of a group communication service architecture and the development of end-to-end multipeer communication services. Research in this area resulted in the definition of a multicast service (M-Connection Service). This service provides (1:N) multicast support for distributed multimedia systems. Its feasibility was evaluated by mapping M-Connection service elements on to XTP 4.0 protocol mechanisms. In parallel different transport service architectures and protocol implementations (viz. an IP based architecture and XTP 3.6) were analysed. Their suitability to provide communications support for multipeer communication was investigated and implementation of the two were tested.

    GCommS project looks also into the problem of QoS for multimedia multipeer communication. In an open, heterogeneous group environment different users have different QoS requirements, depending on individual user needs, end-system capabilities and the kind of network users are connected to. New ways to specify and negotiate QoS in this situation are investigated within the GCommS project. Related to this problem is mutlipeer integrity and group reliability. Another area of research addressed within the project is group management.

    We are currently working on the definition of a service offering high-level group communciation support, the development of an (N:N) transport service and the design of a suitable protocol suite supporting multimedia multipeer communication.

    Project Links

    The GCommS project and its members participate in different projects and collaborate in various ways with other national and international institutions. This includes:

  • COST 237, a European project which provides a discussion forum for researchers in the area of Multimedia Telecommunications Services.

  • BSI and ISO SC6/WG4. The GCommS project participates in the discussion on the standardisation of multipeer transport services and protocols within these institutions.

  • A collaboration between the Equipe Fdida at the Laboratoire MASI, University Pierre et Marie Currie, Paris and the GCommS project has been established. This collaboration includes research visits, joint project work and publications.

    The GCommS project has also relations with various other universities and research groups for example with the Lehrstuhl für Praktische Informatik IV at the University of Mannheim.

    Publications

  • A. Mauthe, D. Hutchison, G. Coulson, S. Namuye:
    "From Requirements to Services: Group Communictation Support for Distributed Multimedia Systems", in Proceedings of 2nd International Workshop, IWACA '94, Heidelberg, Germany, 1994.

  • A. Mauthe, D. Hutchison, G. Coulson, S. Namuye:
    "From Requirements to Services: A Study on Group Communictation Support for Distributed Multimedia Systems", Technical Report MPG-95-10, Computing Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, 1995.

  • S. Namuye, D. Hutchison, A. Mauthe, G. Coulson:
    "Group Management Services for Distributed Multimedia Applications", in Proceedings of 2nd Communication Networks Symposium, Manchester, UK, 1995.

  • A. Mauthe, G. Coulson, D. Hutchison, S. Namuye:
    "Group Support in Multimedia Communications Systems", in Proceedings of 2nd COST 237 Workshop on Teleservices and Multimedia Communications, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1995.

  • J. F. de Rezende, A. Mauthe, D. Hutchison, S. Fdida:
    "M-Connection Service: A Multicast Service for Distributed Multimedia Applications", in Proceedings of 2nd COST 237 Workshop on Teleservices and Multimedia Communications, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1995.

  • G. Danner:
    "Multimedia Transport Services", Diploma-Thesis, Lehrstuhl für Praktische Informatik IV, Universität Mannheim, Computing Department, Lancaster University, Mannheim - Lancaster, 1996.

  • F. Garcia, D. Hutchison, A. Mauthe, N. Yeadon:
    "QoS Support for Distributed Multimedia Communications", in Proceedings of IFIP/ IEEE International Conference on Distributed Platforms, Dresden, Germany, 1996.

  • N. Yeadon, A. Mauthe, F. Garcia, D. Hutchison:
    "QoS Filters: Addressing the Heterogeneity Gap", in Proceedings of IDMS '96, European Workshop on Interactive Distributed Multimedia Systems and Services, Berlin, Germany, 1996.

    email: mpg@comp.lancs.ac.uk

    Finally: The GCommS group's attitude to work


    GCommS logo designed by Nick
    last modified: March, 7th 1996 by Andreas