Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware 2.2.0

NMM is a multimedia middleware and considers the network as an integral part and enables the intelligent use of devices distributed across a network. Therefore, it can be used as enabling technology for locally operating multimedia applications, but more importantly for all kinds of networked and distributed multimedia systems - spanning from embedded and mobile systems, to PCs, to large-scale computing clusters.

Besides the PC, an increasing number of multimedia devices -- such as set-top boxes, PDAs, and mobile phones -- already provide networking capabilities. However, today's multimedia infrastructures adopt a centralized approach, where all multimedia processing takes place within a single system.

The network is, at best, used for streaming predefined content from a server to clients. Conceptually, such approaches consist of two isolated applications, a server and a client. The realization of complex scenarios is therefore complicated and error-prone -- especially since the client has typically no or only limited control of the server.