MPEG doc#: N11968
Date: March 2011
Author: Panos Kudumakis and Xin Wang

1           Introduction

MPEG-M (ISO/IEC 23006) is a suite of standards that has been developed for the purpose of enabling the easy design and implementation of media-handling value chains whose devices interoperate because they are all based on the same set of technologies, especially technologies standardised by MPEG, exposed through standard middleware APIs, elementary service protocols and service aggregation mechanisms. Therefore, it is envisaged to accelerate the development of a broad market of products, content, services and applications designed to enrich one-way TV services with interoperable multichannel two-way content access and delivery.

This part of MPEG-M, Part 1 (ISO/IEC 23006-1, 2^nd Edition) [1], describes service-oriented architecture and technologies for an end-to-end platform populated with MPEG-M devices.

2           MPEG-M Architecture and Technologies

A general architecture of an MPEG-M device is given in Figure 1, where MPEG-M applications running on an MPEG-M device call the technology engines (TEs) in the middleware via an application-middleware API to access local functionality modules [2], call the protocol engines (PEs) to communicate with applications running on other devices by executing elementary or aggregated service protocols among them [3][4]. The role of the orchestrator engine is to set up a more complex chain of technology and protocol engines.

Figure 1: MPEG-M device architecture

Typical technology engines include ones implementing MPEG technologies such as: Audio, Video, 3D Graphics, Sensory Data, File Format, Streaming, Metadata, Search, Rendering, Adaptation, Rights Management and Media Value Chain Ontologies [2].

Typical protocol engines include ones implementing the elementary services, as defined in Part 4 (23006-4, 2^nd Edition) [3], such as Describe User, Describe Content, Adapt Content, Request Content, and Request License. A service definition consists of the specifications of protocols, interfaces, and respective data formats. The protocol data formats are XML-based messages. The workflow of a protocol is specified through an OMG’s BPMN 2.0 XML representation [5].

The typical mechanism used by the orchestrator engine to aggregate services is the ones defined in Part 5 (23006-5) [4], is a set of workflow definitions of services represented by the OMG’s BPMN 2.0 XML format [5], allowing for formal descriptions of the workflows of aggregated services, and consequently enabling the implementation automated tools for service aggregation.

Figure 2 below depicts the MPEG-M standard-enabled digital media service eco-system underpinning and supporting the activities of content creators and consumers, utilizing elementary and aggregated services.

Figure 2: Elementary and Aggregated Services in an MPEG-M value chain.

3           References

[1]   ISO/IEC 23006-1 2^nd edition, Information Technology – Multimedia Service Platform Technologies – Part 1:  Architecture and Technologies, Draft International Standard, Geneva, CH, March 2011.

[2]   ISO/IEC 23006-2 2^nd edition, Information Technology – Multimedia Service Platform Technologies – Part 2:  MPEG Extensible Middleware API, Draft International Standard, Geneva, CH, March 2011.

[3]   ISO/IEC 23006-4 2^nd edition, Information Technology – Multimedia Service Platform Technologies – Part 4:  Elementary Services, Draft International Standard, Geneva, CH, March 2011.

[4]   ISO/IEC 23006-5, Information Technology – Multimedia Service Platform Technologies – Part 5: Service Aggregation, Draft International Standard, Geneva, CH, March 2011.

[5]   OMG BPMN 2.0, Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) Version 2.0, Object Management Group, January 2011.