Research Group

The Research Group "Multimedia Communication (MMC)", Institute of Information Technology Klagenfurt University, Austria, was founded and is being led by Prof. Hermann Hellwagner, one of the founders of IRIANC. The research activities of the group are in the areas of

Multimedia communication and QoS provisioning

Adaptation of multimedia content w.r.t. network, device, and usage contexts

Use of Scalable Video Coding (SVC) technology in networks and P2P systems

Adaptive multimedia applications, e.g., IPTV

Standardization within ISO/IEC MPEG

Multimedia in disaster management

The focus of the MMC group is clearly on adaptive delivery of audio-visual contents, taking into account, for instance, fluctuating network and environmental conditions that can occur when users are on the move. In particular, we are currently investigating the use of Scalable Video Coding (SVC) technology in such networks.

Research Projects

The MMC group actively participates in several international and national research projects on all levels, ranging from basic research to application-oriented projects and direct cooperation with industry.

Examples of research projects the group currently participates in are as follows:

P2P-Next (Next Generation Peer-to-Peer Content Delivery Platform), funded by the EC in FP7 as an Integrated Project

INTERMEDIA (Interactive Media with Personal Networked Devices), funded by the EC in FP6 as a Network of Excellence

ASSSV (Adaptive Streaming of Wavelet-based Secure Scalable Video), funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

SCALNET (Scalable Video Coding Impact on Networks), granted by CELTIC / SCALIPTV (Scalable Video-based Provisioning of TV and VoD Services over the Internet), funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) as a BRIDGE project

A full list of projects and more detailed descriptions is available here.

Group Leader

Prof. Hermann Hellwagner has been a full professor of computer science at Klagenfurt University since late 1998. He leads the research group “Multimedia Communication (MMC)” in the Institute of Information Technology. His current research areas of interest are distributed multimedia systems, multimedia communications and adaptation, MPEG-21, and Internet QoS. Prior to joining Klagenfurt University, Dr. Hellwagner was associate professor (C3) of parallel computer architecture at Technische Universität München (TUM) from 1995 to 1998, where he led a group of researchers working on compute clusters based on the high-performance Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) system area network (SAN). Before joining TUM, he was senior researcher and team / project manager at Siemens AG, Corporate R&D, Munich.

Dr. Hellwagner is the editor of several books, has published widely on parallel computer architecture and parallel programming, and now publishes regularly on multimedia communications and adaptation in referred journals and conference proceedings. He is a member of the IEEE, of ACM, GI, and OCG; he is also member of the Scientific Board of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). He also served as the head of the Austrian delegation to the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG - ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 WG11) from 2002 to 2007; currently, he serves as the deputy head of delegation.

Selected Recent Publications

R. Kuschnig, I. Kofler, and H. Hellwagner, “An Evaluation of TCP-based Rate-Control Algorithms for Adaptive Internet Streaming of H.264/SVC”, Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys-10), Scottsdale, AZ, USA, February 22-23, 2010. (to appear)

M. Eberhard, C. Timmerer, E. Quacchio, and H. Hellwagner, “An Interoperable Delivery Framework for Scalable Media Resources”, IEEE Wireless Communications, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 58-63, October 2009.

H. Hellwagner, R. Kuschnig, T. Stütz, A. Uhl, “Efficient in-network adaptation of encrypted H.264/SVC content”, Signal Processing: Image Communication 24 (2009) 740–758.

C. Timmerer, J. Gelissen, M. Waltl, and H. Hellwagner, “Interfacing with Virtual Worlds”, Proceedings of the NEM Summit 2009, Saint-Malo, France, September 28-30, 2009. (Best Paper Award)

M. Waltl, C. Timmerer, and H. Hellwagner, “A Test-Bed for Quality of Multimedia Experience Evaluation of Sensory Effects”, Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX 2009), San Diego, USA, July 29-31, 2009.

I. Kofler, R. Kuschnig, and H. Hellwagner, “In-network Real-time Adaptation of Scalable Video Content on a WiFi Router”, Proceedings of the 6th Annual IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (IEEE CCNC 09), Las Vegas, USA, January 2009.

R. Kuschnig, I. Kofler, M. Ransburg, and H. Hellwagner, “Design options and comparison of in-network H.264/SVC adaptation”, Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, Sept. 2008.

I. Kofler, M. Prangl, R. Kuschnig, and H. Hellwagner, “An H.264/SVC-based adaptation proxy on a WiFi router”, Proceedings of the 18th International Workshop on Network and Operating Systems Support for Digital Audio and Video (NOSSDAV 2008), Braunschweig, Germany, May 2008.

L. Böszörmenyi, H. Hellwagner, and P. Schojer: “Metadata-driven Optimal Transcoding in a Multimedia Proxy”, Multimedia Systems, Springer Verlag, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 51-68, Sept. 2007.

M. Prangl, T. Szkaliczki, and H. Hellwagner: “A Framework for Utility-based Multimedia Adaptation”, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 719-728, Jun. 2007.