Storage system in a multimedia server must satisfy two contradicting requirements: real-timeliness and large number of parallel user requests. Efficient algorithms for data placement, disk head scheduling, and request admission control schemes are needed to support the requirements. In this paper, we propose efficient schemes to maximize system resource utilization and service availability: cyclic placement scheme, subgroup retrieval scheme, and measurement-based request admission control scheme. Performance analysis through simulation revealed that the amount of system buffers required can be reduced by 70% approximately.

In mobile multimedia environment, it is very important to minimize handoff latency due to mobility. In terms of reducing handoff latency, Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) can be an efficient approach, which uses a mobility agent called Mobility Anchor Point (MAP) in order to localize registration process. However, MAP can be a single point of failure or performance bottleneck. In order to provide mobile users with satisfactory quality of service and fault-tolerant service, it is required to cope with the failure of mobility agents. In, we proposed Robust Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (RH-MIPv6), which is an enhanced HMIPv6 for fault-tolerant mobile services. In RH-MIPv6, an MN configures two regional CoA and registers them to two MAPs during binding update procedures. When a MAP fails, MNs serviced by the faulty MAP (i.e., primary MAP) can be served by a failure-free MAP (i.e., secondary MAP) by failure detection/recovery schemes in the case of the RH-MIPv6. In this paper, we investigate the comparative study of RH-MIPv6 and HMIPv6 under several performance factors such as MAP unavailability, MAP reliability, packet loss rate, and MAP blocking probability. To do this, we utilize a semi-Markov chain and a M/G/C/C queuing model. Numerical results indicate that RH-MIPv6 outperforms HMIPv6 for all performance factors, especially when failure rate is high.

Next-generation wireless/mobile networks will be IP-based cellular networks integrating Internet with the existing cellular networks. Recently, Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) was proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for efficient mobility management. HMIPv6 reduces the amount of signaling and improves the performance of MIPv6 in terms of handoff latency. Although HMIPv6 is an efficient scheme, the performance of wireless networks is highly dependent on various system parameters such as user mobility model, packet arrival pattern, etc. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the network performance when HMIPv6 is deployed in IP-based cellular networks. In this paper, we develop two analytic models for the performance analysis of HMIPv6 in IP-based cellular networks, which are based on the random-walk and the fluid-flow models. Based on these analytic models, we formulate the location update cost and the packet delivery cost. Then, we analyze the impact of cell residence time and user population on the location update cost and the packet delivery cost, respectively. In addition, we study the variation of the total cost as the session-to-mobility ratio is changed and the optimal MAP domain size to minimize the total cost is also investigated.

Existing routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks assume that all nodes have the same transmission range. In other words, the mobile ad hoc network has symmetric links, which means that two neighboring nodes A and B are within the transmission range of one another. However, since nodes consume battery power independently according to their computing and communication load, there exist asymmetric links, which means that node A is within node B's transmission range, but not vice versa. In this paper, two approaches are presented to support routing in the existence of asymmetric links: GAHA (GPS-based Hop-by-hop Acknowledgment) and GAPA (GPS-based Passive Acknowledgment) schemes. Both GAHA and GAPA can be applied to any routing protocols by utilizing GPS (Global Positioning System) location information. Simulation results reveal that both GAHA and GAPA protocols cope well in the presence of asymmetric wireless links and nodes' mobility.

Various demands for next generation networks can be condensed into always-best-connected, ubiquitous, mobile, all-IP, application-aware, and converged networks. Vehicles have also come to be ubiquitous computing platforms associated with mobile communication functions. IPv6 has been introduced for all-IP ubiquitous communications. This paper proposes application-aware resource management for in-vehicle IPv6 networks, which are adaptive to different hardware configurations. We focus on power and bandwidth, since their management is critical for mobile communications. To manage these two critical resources, we identify the mobility characteristics and hardware configurations of in-vehicle networks. Based on these characteristics, we propose vehicle-aware power saving schemes. Our main idea for power saving is to dynamically adjust the mobile router (MR) advertisement interval and binding update lifetime. In addition, depending on the hardware configuration of the wireless environment, we propose two adaptive bandwidth management schemes using multihoming, which we refer to as best-connected MR selection based on location and high-data-rate MR selection based on priority. We evaluate the performance of our bandwidth management schemes by performing simulations, and that of our power saving schemes by mathematical analysis. Based on the results, it was found that the performance of each software scheme depends on the hardware configuration, so that an application-aware adaptive scheme is needed to optimize resource consumption.

In IP-based mobile networks, a few of mobility agents (e.g., home agent, foreign agent, etc.) are used for mobility management. Recently, Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) was proposed to reduce signaling overhead and handoff latency occurred in Mobile IPv6. In HMIPv6, a new mobility agent, called mobility anchor point (MAP), is deployed in order to handle binding update procedures locally. However, the MAP can be a single point of performance bottleneck when there are a lot of mobile node (MNs) performing frequent local movements. This is because the MAP takes binding update procedures as well as data packet tunneling. Therefore, it is required to control the number of MNs serviced by a single MAP. In this paper, we propose a load control scheme at the MAP utilizing an admission control algorithm. We name the proposed load control scheme proactive load control scheme to distinct from the existing load control schemes in cellular networks. In terms of admission control, we use the cutoff priority scheme. We develop Markov chain models for the proactive load control scheme and evaluate the ongoing MN dropping and the new MN blocking probabilities. As a result, the proactive load control scheme can reduce the ongoing MN dropping probability while keeping the new MN blocking probability to a reasonable level.

Multimedia communications, fast growing industry in the world and in Korea, require advanced technology in network, computer, device, and application software. Korean government and industries prepare for this huge opportunity by commitment to national R&D programs. While investing heavily on present multimedia products, private companies also support R&D on future multimedia technologies. This paper surveys key R&D efforts in Korea by programs and organizations.

A traffic engineering problem in a network consists of setting up paths between the edge nodes of the network to meet traffic demands while optimizing network performance. It is known that total traffic throughput in a network, or resource utilization, can be maximized if a traffic demand is split over multiple paths. However, the problem formulation and practical algorithms, which calculate the paths and the load-splitting ratios by taking bandwidth, the route constraints or policies into consideration, have not been much touched. In this paper, we formulate the constrained multipath-routing problems with the objective of minimizing the maximum of link utilization, while satisfying bandwidth, the maximum hop count, and the not-preferred node/link list in Linear Programming (LP). Optimal solutions of paths and load-splitting ratios found by an LP solver are shown to be superior to the conventional shortest path algorithm in terms of maximum link utilization, total traffic volume, and number of required paths. Then, we propose a heuristic algorithm with low computational complexity that finds near optimal paths and load-splitting ratios satisfying the given constraints. The proposed algorithm is applied to Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) that can permit explicit path setup, and it is tested in a fictitious backbone network. The experiment results show that the heuristic algorithm finds near optimal solutions.