Implementation of UMA concept in advanced internet environments using MPEG-21

This work presents a partial development within the Internet2 Catalan project called "Integrated Project" which aims to design and build an advanced Internet environment based on Universal Multimedia Access (UMA) concept using MPEG-21 standard tools in order to enable transparent and augmented use of multimedia content across a wide range of networks, devices and by different users. The project is integrated with several modules using Web Service architecture in an interoperable manner to accomplish a complete distributed system. Within this framework, the DI Management & Personalization module provides services such as content recommendation, advanced searches, best content adaptation possibilities and session mobility management. By means of cataloguing tools, user preferences setting and update according to user's habit consumption, it offers content recommendations taking also into account user preferences, terminal capabilities, and network characteristics. Finally, during the consumption process, the Adaptation Decision Engine selects the best adaptation process in each case taking into account network characteristics, terminal capabilities, and state of AV content transcoding servers. The module provides extensive use of MPEG-21 and MPEG-7 standards ensuring interoperability with other similar systems.