THE MULTIMEDIA MULTICAST CHANNEL

The Multimedia MuIticast Channel is a dissemination-oriented communica tion abstraction providing a service analogous to that of a cable tele vision broadcast channel, A source transmits multimedia information su ch as video and audio streams onto a channel, and a varying number of receivers 'tune in' to the channel to receive a selected set of the st reams, To support heterogeneity, each receiver may tailor the selected streams to meet individual needs through the use of filters, The desi gn encourages a very loose coupling between the source and the receive rs, promoting open-loop control for the underlying network protocols.