The document discusses MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM), which provides a set of APIs to access various MPEG technologies through "MXM engines". MXM aims to simplify application development by handling complexity within the engines and allowing replacement of engines without cost. It also seeks to create a market for MXM engines, applications, and devices. The document outlines the MXM approach of wrapping standards in libraries accessible via standardized MXM APIs, and lists some current MXM engine examples.

1. Accelerating Media Business Developments
with the MPEG Extensible Middleware
http://mxm.wg11.sc29.org/
mxm@lists.uni-klu.ac.at Acknowledgments: W. Allasia, I. Arsov, W. Bailer, F. Chiariglione, L. Chiariglione, J. Delgado, A. Difino, V. R. Doncel, M. Eber-
hard, M. Gauvin, T. Huang, W. Lee, S. Matone, M. Preda, E. Radica, C. Timmerer
What if … MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM)
… one does not need to have in-depth knowledge of specific MPEG • A set of APIs to access possibly all MPEG techno-
technologies / standards? logies
… one is able to start with application/business development as soon • Simple methods to call complex functionalities
as some (reference) software becomes available? inside MXM engines
• “Thin” applications because the complexity is in
… one is able to exchange applications’ underlying (reference) soft- the MXM engines
ware with optimized one at no cost? • Replacement of MXM engines with better perfor-
ming ones at no cost
The MXM Vision • Creation of a global market of MXM Engines,
MXM Applications and MXM Devices
MPEG-21 Multimedia Framework
The MXM Approach
“every human is potentially an element of a network in- Standards: around 11 000 pages, 1,5 m high when printed
volving billions of content providers, value adders, packag-
1. Creating wrapping libraries,
ers, service providers, resellers, consumers ...”
they are called engines
2. Opening the engines at
ESSENTIAL points only
Interoperable DRM Platform (IDP) 3. Documenting the IN/OUT
points in another … MPEG stan-
… respecting dard: 23006-2 MXM API
• creator and rights holders rights to exploit their works
• end user wish to fully enjoy the benefits of digital media
• various value-chain player interests to provide products
and services
MPEG Extensible Middleware
Current list of MXM Engines
• ContentProtocolEngine • LicenseProtocolEngine
• ContentSearchEngine • MediaFrameworkEngine
• DIAEngine • MetadataEngine
• DIDEngine • MPEG21FileEngine
• DISEngine • MVCOEngine
• DomainEngine • OrchestratorEngine
• EREngine • RELEngine
• IPMPEngine • RenderingEngine
• IPMPToolProtocolEngine • SecurityEngine
MXM APIs of each engine divided into…
• Creation, e.g., encode a raw audio track, create an
MPEG-7 metadata description
• Access, e.g., get data from a Digital Item, decode a
Advanced IPTV Terminal (AIT) video
• Editing, e.g., add an elementary stream to a mul-
• ITU-T: definition of IPTV infrastructure and components tiplexed content
• MPEG: development of enabling technologies for IPTV • Engine-specific, e.g., RELEngine: authorise(license,
AIT: a set of Basic Services + protocols and APIs to enable any user in query), LicenseProtocolEngine: requestLicense
an AIT value chain to access those services in an interoperable fashion (licenseID, serviceURL)
Basic Services: identification, authentication, description, storage, adaptation, posting, packaging, delivery,
presentation, interaction, aggregation, management, search, negotiation, and transaction