Integration of 'message ordering' and 'flow of real-time': A specification framework for multimedia data presentation

The multimedia synchronization problem has two aspects: i) Framing of media data into real-time intervals that constitute distinctly perceivable 'data points' in the application, and ii) Temporal presentation control that orders various 'data points' over real-time as required by the application. In our solution approach, temporal presentation involves the play-out of the media data units belonging to a given time interval, in accordance with the dependency relationship among 'state changes' induced by data units and their timeliness requirements. An important feature of our model is the integration of timeliness constraints into a causal ordering of media data units that flow across application entities to induce state changes' in them. An application-specific enforcement of presentation control, usine, causal ordering, allows flexibility in generating play-out schedules of data and optimizes the usage of system resources to application needs.