From Requirements to Services: A Study on Group Communication Support for Distributed Multimedia Systems

: In recent years computers have developed very rapidly from simple processing machines to sophisticated communication systems employing multiple media. Computers are imcreasingly used for all kinds of man-machine and interpersonal communication and co-operation. Many of these applications involve multiple communicating entities as well as multimedia. However, in general no sufficient support for multimedia group communication is yet available. In this paper we first analyse existing systems offering group support at different levels of the system and communication architecture. Subsequently a study on multimedia group application requirements is described. It is mainly concerned with highly interactive applications such as CSCW. The study is based on the examination of existing systems, system scenarios and ethnographical studies. To describe the multitude of characteristics and requirements of these applications in a structured and comprehensive way a set of group application charact..