Consistency models for distributed interactive multimedia applications

Abstract

Distributed Interactive Multimedia Applications (DIMA) are "human in the loop" applications. Their aim is to support real-world like interactions through a virtual world in a broader sense. However, propagation delays, jitter and losses due to network communications naturally lead to inconsistencies, when local and remote actions performed by users/clients are played out. This constraint makes the management of replicated multimedia shared data a real challenge. In the literature, various consistency models are proposed and each of them brings their own complexity and distortion among interactions. In this paper, we provide hints to help DIMA designers to choose appropriate consistency models by first presenting meaningful psycho-perceptive characteristics of the real-world interactions and then discussing various consistency models according to them.