Prof. Ralf Steinmetz worked for over nine years in industrial research and development of distributed multimedia systems and applications. Since 1996 he is the head of the Multimedia Communications Lab at Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. From 1997 to 2001 he directed the Fraunhofer (former GMD) Integrated Publishing Systems Institute IPSI in Darmstadt. In 1999 he founded the Hessian Telemedia Technology Competence Center (httc e.V.). His thematic focus in research and teaching is on multimedia communications with his vision of real "seamless multimedia communications". With over 200 refereed publications he has become ICCC Governor in 1999; was awarded the ranking of Fellow of both, the IEEE in 1999 and the ACM in 2002. Prof. Klara Nahrstedt is currently an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Over the last ten years she has been working on various research problems in the area of Quality of Service provisioning for real-time multimedia processing and communication systems and published over 100 papers in leading conferences and journals. She is the editor-in-chief of the ACM/Springer Multimedia Journal, as well as she has served on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Computer Networks Journal, Journal on Multimedia Applications and Tools, and ACM Computer Communication Review Journal. For her research results she was awarded the Early NSF Career Award, the Junior Xerox Award, IEEE Communication Society Leonard Abraham Award for Research Achievements, and the Ralph and Catherine Fisher Professorship Chair.

• 1 Introduction.- 2 Quality of Service.- 3 Multimedia Operating Systems.- 4 Media Server.- 5 Networks.- 6 Communication.- 7 Group Communication.- 8 Synchronization.

Prof. Ralf Steinmetz worked for over nine years in industrial research and development of distributed multimedia systems and applications. Since 1996 he is the head of the Multimedia Communications Lab at Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. From 1997 to 2001 he directed the Fraunhofer (former GMD) Integrated Publishing Systems Institute IPSI in Darmstadt. In 1999 he founded the Hessian Telemedia Technology Competence Center (httc e.V.). His thematic focus in research and teaching is on multimedia communications with his vision of real "seamless multimedia communications". With over 200 refereed publications he has become ICCC Governor in 1999; was awarded the ranking of Fellow of both, the IEEE in 1999 and the ACM in 2002. Prof. Klara Nahrstedt is currently an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Over the last ten years she has been working on various research problems in the area of Quality of Service provisioning for real-time multimedia processing and communication systems and published over 100 papers in leading conferences and journals. She is the editor-in-chief of the ACM/Springer Multimedia Journal, as well as she has served on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Computer Networks Journal, Journal on Multimedia Applications and Tools, and ACM Computer Communication Review Journal. For her research results she was awarded the Early NSF Career Award, the Junior Xerox Award, IEEE Communication Society Leonard Abraham Award for Research Achievements, and the Ralph and Catherine Fisher Professorship Chair.

• 1 Introduction.- 2 Quality of Service.- 3 Multimedia Operating Systems.- 4 Media Server.- 5 Networks.- 6 Communication.- 7 Group Communication.- 8 Synchronization.

Prof. Ralf Steinmetz worked for over nine years in industrial research and development of distributed multimedia systems and applications. Since 1996 he is the head of the Multimedia Communications Lab at Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. From 1997 to 2001 he directed the Fraunhofer (former GMD) Integrated Publishing Systems Institute IPSI in Darmstadt. In 1999 he founded the Hessian Telemedia Technology Competence Center (httc e.V.). His thematic focus in research and teaching is on multimedia communications with his vision of real "seamless multimedia communications". With over 200 refereed publications he has become ICCC Governor in 1999; was awarded the ranking of Fellow of both, the IEEE in 1999 and the ACM in 2002. Prof. Klara Nahrstedt is currently an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Over the last ten years she has been working on various research problems in the area of Quality of Service provisioning for real-time multimedia processing and communication systems and published over 100 papers in leading conferences and journals. She is the editor-in-chief of the ACM/Springer Multimedia Journal, as well as she has served on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Computer Networks Journal, Journal on Multimedia Applications and Tools, and ACM Computer Communication Review Journal. For her research results she was awarded the Early NSF Career Award, the Junior Xerox Award, IEEE Communication Society Leonard Abraham Award for Research Achievements, and the Ralph and Catherine Fisher Professorship Chair.

• 1 Introduction.- 2 Quality of Service.- 3 Multimedia Operating Systems.- 4 Media Server.- 5 Networks.- 6 Communication.- 7 Group Communication.- 8 Synchronization.