Distributed multimedia plays with QoS guaranties over IP

Musical collaboration over telecommunication networks has marvellous possibilities when it comes to musical education, practise and performance. The deployment and use of high-capacity digital networks makes it possible to obtain end-to-end audio and video latency of 5-20 milliseconds, which is similar to the audio time delay typically experienced between musicians on a stage. The main challenge of reaching this latency budget over digital packet switched network such as the Internet, is how to control the queuing delay of the IP packet experienced at each router on the network paths between each participating musician. Other important aspects are video and audio codec latency, and error resilient tools needed to cope with situations where IP packets arrive too late or have been lost in the network. This paper gives an overview of resent research (work-in-progress) in this field, including network simulations, conducted at the NTNU, and suggests how these techniques can be utilized under live concert performances.