Towards an Architecture for Distributed Multimedia Databases

Dept. of Computer Engineering and Industrial Automation, State University of Campinas P. O. Box 6101 | Campinas (SP) 13081-970, Brazil e-mail: ricarte@dca.fee.unicamp.br Institute of Informatics, Ponti cal Catholic University of Campinas P. O. Box 317 | Campinas (SP) 13020-904, Brazil e-mail: tobar@zeus.puccamp.br

To appear at the International Conference on Intelligent Information Systems, June 1996, Washington, DC.

Ivan L. M. Ricarte Carlos M. Tobar

sources has been demanding the reengineering of a broad class of supporting software in order to ease the implementation of multimedia applications. In this paper, we address the features a database system should provide in order to support multimedia applications, with emphasis on its integration to distributed platforms. The architecture of a prototype multimedia database, the Multiware Database, is presented. Key words: Databases Management Systems, Multimedia Systems, Distributed Computing

Abstract The widespread use of multimedia re-

2 Multimedia Requirements
The use of conventional database systems brought a sensible improvement on the use of computers on data management and has enabled the achievement of data abstraction and independence. Two main aspects are related to the independence achieved by a database: data independence concerns to the fact that the application does not know internal data structures; and Modeling independence concerns to the fact that information is described independently from applications. Independence for multimedia applications requires the interpretation of what is stored. However, most database systems do not support adequately such requirement since there are no mechanisms to register and retrieve multimedia data, to manipulate di erent types of media and the amount of storage space required by some media data types, and to provide large and variable retrieval data rates for the transportation of multimedia data. Many database systems provide a BLOB (binary large object) type to store and manipulate large unstructured data pieces. However, providing BLOBs is not enough to support the complexity of multimedia documents. It is necessary to provide models that allow the capture of complexity and semantic meaning of multimedia documents, their content, and media types. A multimedia document contains all the user information that is to be stored, retrieved, and exhibited, and may become very complex since it can be composed by many units, containing data pieces of different media types. The use of metadata is required in order to establish the relationships with other units, not only to e ectively structure a multimediadocument but also to support operations of search and retrieval, protection, control, monitoring, and billing. Relation-

1 Introduction
Although multimedia and computing were unrelated in their origins, they are nowadays quite related. Computer-supported multimedia systems provide tools and applications that are characterized by facilities for the construction, communication, and exhibition of documents incorporating di erent types of media. Technological developments have provided the supporting tools to construct a broad variety of multimedia systems. However, there is still the need of adequate mechanisms for the persistent storage, search, and retrieval of multimedia documents, providing integration, independence, and consistency of multimedia data in the same way that such mechanisms are provided by conventional database management systems. This paper presents some of the main aspects that must be provided by a database management system in order to support distributed multimedia applications (Section 2). It also describes (Section 3) how such requirements were addressed by the prototype Multiware Database. Finally, conclusions are presented (Section 4).

2.1 Modeling Support

ships comprehend aspects such as where the information units must be placed for a presentation, how they are temporally and logically related, and which units are subject to user interaction for choice, modi cation, or access. A multimedia database system should support four distinct aspects of information, which together capture the fact that a multimedia document is in itself an object which may also represent objects. A structural model allows modeling of multimedia objects, with possibly complex composition relationships. The way data and metadata are described is speci ed by a conceptual model. A layout model relates the stored data with their external views, and an application model associates information to the multimedia content. There are four major activities related to storage and retrieval of multimedia data. Capture is related to acquisition and digitalization, usually supported by hardware devices which also compress data. Authoring is related to the process of creating multimedia documents, being concerned with planning, design, implementation, test, and maintenance. Perception is related to the transmission and exhibition of the information present in a multimedia document to nal users. Management enables the control of the computational environment, being related to management of resources, security, and establishment of access and billing policies. These activities impose distinct database requirements. Capture and exhibition require high rates of data transfer. Authoring requires an elaborate data model, that allow to capture all the aspects of document construction. Management imposes requirements on controling access and quality of services (QoS). A multimedia database needs to manipulate huge data items such as high-quality still images, stereo sound, and HDTV quality video. Even though there are many techniques to manipulate large data volumes on databases, the requirements of a multimedia database di er basically on two aspects, non-uniform structures and real-time restrictions.

2.2 Multimedia Activities

tributed resources supports a new generation of computer applications, such as cooperative work (CSCW) and decision support systems. QoS is another issue that must be considered in the scope of distributed multimedia applications. It is related to the process of exhibiting a multimedia document within given acceptable parameters, involving features such as media data rate and transmission characteristics; communication and operating system requirements such as data unit size, number of errors, ordered delivery of data, and scheduling mechanisms; and device requirements such as timing and throughput demands. A multimedia database system that \understands" QoS could store and use this information to achieve the required performance on data access, transport and exhibition. Distributed architectures present potential heterogeneity problems between their hardware and software components. The adoption of standards mitigates the problem of data format heterogeneity, and also eases the integration with hardware and software products in order to support multimedia activities. It is important that media representations comply to multimedia standards in order to allow the integration of existing tools and applications to the multimedia database.

3 Multiware Database
We present here a prototype for a multimedia database system that addresses the main requirements of distributed multimedia applications. The Multiware Database System was proposed in the context of a larger project, the Multiware Platform 1]. The main goal in the development of this platform is to integrate services from open distributed environments into a multimediaplatform. The aspects of Multiware Database that are described here include integration to this distributed multimedia platform and the internal architecture of the system.

3.1 Multiware Platform

2.3 Other Requirements

A multimedia document may be presented di erently on distinct systems, depending upon factors such as available resources and user's choices. Therefore, the database should be able to manipulate multiple interpretations of a document, isolating its structure from its presentation features. Other important aspect of future multimedia systems is distribution, which reects the interconnectivity among current systems and may also be the key to solve some of the constraints imposed on required storage space. Integration of dis-

The Multiware Platform is supported by the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) proposed by the Object Management Group (OMG). This architecture aims to obtain distribution openness through the adoption of an object-oriented client-server structure, achieving interoperability among independently developed applications. OMG has identi ed, for distributed applications, a set of services providing several facilities similar to those provided by operating systems, databases, and network communication systems. OMG facilities are named object services when providing basic functions or common facilities when providing general purpose capabilities. A brokering server, the Object Request Broker (ORB), is the main

component of the OMG architecture, and provides behavior invocation through a registration mechanism for location, naming, replication, and implementation. Multimedia manipulation requires specialized facilities which are only partially covered by the current OMG proposal 2], and should be extended to support multimedia applications. Among the required facilities there are specialized retrieval, presentation, wrapup, and transport. Specialized retrieval extends the OMG query object service as well as the storage and retrieval common facility. This new facility supports the access to multimedia documents based upon their features, such as structure and content. Presentation is related to aspects such as synchronization, interaction, and security during an exhibition. This facility is partially supported by the user interface common facilities. Wrap-up creates multimedia objects in a format ready for exhibition. It must generate adequate information to encapsulate objects for transport through the network, generating MHEG 3] objects. Transport provides the mechanisms for e cient and reliable movement of multimedia objects. Transport is essentially a peer-to-peer communication between the multimedia database and an agency or presentation engine, with the exhibition multimedia document being seen as a software agent.

Specialized Media Servers

Some requirements imposed by multimedia activity on database systems are better supported by specialized media servers which can a ord better performance, allowing the choice of which media servers should be integrated. As already observed, one of the main de ciences in conventional database systems is the manipulation of multimedia data as a BLOB. Therefore, Multiware Database has chosen to incorporate repository servers which are specialized for each media type, as illustrated in Figure 1. One of the advantages of having specialized servers is that part of the query functionality | content-based retrieval, optimized access established by quality of service parameters | can be allocated at the repository level rather than at the object-oriented database level. We have opted to provide servers to standard formats as a way to ease the integration of Multiware Database to other platforms.
COMMUNICATION EXHIBITION OBJECT MHEG/PREMO OBJECT MIDDLEWARE SCOPE

ODBMS SCOPE INFORMATION OBJECT PRESENTATION OBJECT

3.2 Internal Architecture

Multiware Database supports facilities provided by conventional databases, and specialized services for manipulating multimedia objects. In order to integrate these two aspects, it combines internally an object-oriented database system with specialized media servers.

HYPERMEDIA SERVER

...

. . .
MEDIA SERVER

ODMG-COMPLIANT OBJECTS

MEDIA SERVER

PRESENTATION OBJECT

SPECIALIZED SERVERS SCOPE MEDIA REPOSITORY MPEG MEDIA REPOSITORY JPEG REPOSITORY PREMO

MULTIMEDIA-STANDARDS-COMPLIANT OBJECTS

Figure 1: Multiware database structure. In contrast to an object-oriented database system integrated architecture, the ORB architecture enables each multimedia facility to provide a separate piece of database technology. This allows the construction of customized systems, with their components supplied by di erent vendors. Depending upon the available functionalities of the integrated object-oriented database systems, it is possible to allocate each multimedia required facility either to the database system or to the platform specialized servers. Three aspects are considered in order to allocate each multimedia facility. Broadness is related to whether the multimedia facility apply only to the object-oriented database system or to several di erent clients. Actuation domain is related to whether the multimedia facility acts only upon objects stored in the object-oriented database systems or also upon external objects. E ciency is related to which facility presents better performance. A detailed analysis was realized in order to select the best allocation of the services for each environment 6].

Object-Oriented Database
Previous work on the representation of multimedia documents has since long pointed towards the use of object-oriented database systems as the best way to support the description and representation of multimedia information. The work by the Object Database Management Group 4] has established the directions for the integration of an object-oriented database with an ORB through an Object Database Adaptor that provides facilities to register a set of stored object identi ers with the ORB and to allow access to stored objects. Adopting this approach for the distributed organization of Multiware Database enables the expansion of potential applications with multimedia facilities 5]. The object-oriented database system in Multiware Database acts as a gateway to multimedia information, which is actually stored in specialized repository servers.

Two distinct types of objects represent a multimedia document in Multiware Database, namely information and presentation objects. An exhibition object is created dynamically during the retrieval of a multimedia document. Data from one information object and one presentation object are joined to compose an exhibition object, which is the multimedia communication unit. The structure of an information object may refer to other information objects, to single media objects, and to hypermedia objects, thus allowing the de nition of recursive multimedia data structures. (Hyper)media objects are stored in distributed and specialized media repository servers, outside the scope of the objectoriented database system. The way a multimedia document is represented produces a layered structural view of Multiware Database, as presented in Figure 1. One exhibition object is composed by all the information necessary for its exhibition, i.e., components localization, synchronization, and speci c presentation information. It is self-contained, being able to be processed by an MHEG engine.

3.3 Modeling Aspects

A distributed multimedia database management system, Multiware Database, was presented. It acts as storage server in an open distributed platform supporting multimedia applications. The current prototype of Multiware Database uses the ObjectStore1 objectoriented database system and the Orbix2 implementation of CORBA running on IBM RS-6000 AIX workstations with FDDI interconnection. The MHEG standard is being used as a rst model of multimedia objects. Some specialized servers are being developed as part of Multiware Database project, although their speci cation enables their use as independent ORB servers.

Acknowledgments The Multiware Platform project is funded by Fundac~o de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de S~o a a Paulo, Brazil (Grant No. 92/3507-0).

References
1] W. Loyolla, E. Madeira, M. J. Mendes, E. Cardozo, and M. F. Magalh~es. Multiware platform: a an open distributed environment for multimedia cooperative applications. In IEEE COMPSAC, 1994. 2] Object Managament Group. Documents 91.12.1 (the Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and speci cation), 95.1.1 (Object Services Architecture), 95.1.2 (Common Facilities Architecture), 1995. 3] ISO. MHEG object representation and base notation. DIS13522-1, September 1995. 4] R. Cattell, editor. The Object Database Standard: ODMG-93. Morgan Kau man, 1994. 5] T. Little and A. Ghafoor. Spatio-temporal composition of distributed multimedia objects for valueadded networks. IEEE Computer, pages 42{50, October 1991. 6] C. Tobar and I. Ricarte. Multiware database, a distributed object database system for multimedia support. In Open Distributed Processing: ExFebruary 1995.
periences with Distributed Environments, Proceedings of the IFIP International Conference on Open Distributed Processing, ICODP'95, pages 439{450,

4 Conclusions
Some major aspects related to a database management system for distributed multimedia were presented in order to address storage, search, retrieval, communication, and exhibition of complex multimedia objects in an open distributed environment. The characteristics of a computational multimedia document were explored and considered for de ning services and facilities involved with its manipulation. Current systems for the management of relational or object-oriented databases do not support adequately these characteristics. The importance of considering multimedia distributed environments was emphasized as fundamental to the future of multimedia applications. We have considered in this project the distribution supported by an open platform rather than by a database system. Open and heterogeneous distributed environments require an interoperability mechanism in order to support communications and services among independently developed applications, in special between a multimedia database management system and its clients. In this paper the mechanism proposed by the OMG is considered. Another important aspect of multimedia information storage is that information should not be kept in a central repository, since each type of media can be better supported by a specialized server. This option has contributed to achieve another degree of distribution, since the retrieval of a multimedia document encapsulates operations over many individual distributed sources.

1 2

ObjectStore is a trademark of Object Design, Inc. Orbix is a Registered Trademark of IONA Technologies.