MXM vision

INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR STANDARDISATION
ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DE NORMALISATION
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11
CODING OF MOVING PICTURES AND AUDIO

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 N10237
Busan, Korea, October 2008

Source:      Systems
Title:          MPEG eXtensible Middleware Vision
Status:       Approved

MPEG eXtensible Middleware Vision

The purpose of the MPEG eXtensible Middleware (MXM) standard is to promote the extended use of digital media content through increased interoperability and accelerated development of components, solutions and applications. This is achieved by specifying

The MXM architecture
The MXM components (by reference)
The MXM components APIs
The MXM applications API
The inter-MXM communication protocols

Fig. 1 depicts the relationship between the MXM in a computing environment and the applications, and the MXM components with their APIs.

Fig. 1 – An MXM device with its MXM architecture

N.B. 1	Each MXM component can talk to a selected number of other MXM components through its own MXM component API
N.B. 2	The Multimedia Middleware standard (ISO/IEC 23004) aka as M3W offers several technologies from its parts 2 to 8, such as Resource and Quality Management, Fault Management and System Integrity Management that may be useful in an implementation

Fig, 2 represents the communication between two MXM devices via the inter-MXM protocols (typically for security-related needs) and the full scope of the MXM standard.

Fig. 2 – Inter MXM device communication

N.B.	For graphical clarity the MXM components of the MXM devices are depicted in a simplified way.

The MXM standard will promote the creation of a global market of

MXM applications that can run on MXM devices thanks to the existence of a standard MXM application API
MXM devices that can play MXM applications thanks to the existence of a standard MXM architecture
MXM components thanks to the existence of standard MXM components APIs
Innovative business models because of the ease to design and implement media-handling value chains whose devices interoperate because they are all based on the same set of technologies, especially MPEG technologies.

As for most other ISO standards, users are free to adopt only the parts of the MXM standard that suit their needs. For instance

A developer of applications will only use the MXM applications API (4. above)
A developer of devices will only use the MXM architecture (1. above). If desired, also the MXM components APIs (3. above)
A developer of components will only use the MXM component specification (2. above) and the MXM components APIs (3. above)
A developer of media value chains will use 1. to 5. above.

The MXM Reference Software will be released as Open Source Software with a business-friendly licence so that it can be used by all to facilitate the developments above.