Analysis of a multimedia stream using stochastic process algebra

It is now well recognized that the next generation of distributed systems w ill be distributed multimedia systems. Central to multimedia systems is qua lity of service, which defines the nonfunctional requirements on the system . In this paper we investigate how stochastic process algebra can be used i n order to determine the quality of service properties of distributed multi media systems. We use a simple multimedia stream as our basic example. We d escribe it in the stochastic process algebra PEPA and then we analyse wheth er the stream satisfies a set of quality of service parameters: throughput, end-to-end latency, jitter and error rates.