Title: A world first development of a multipoint videophone system over 3G-324M protocol

Authors: Hideo Ohira, Mitsura Kodama, Masahiko Yoshimoto

Addresses: Cross Media Business Department, Mobile Multimedia Division, NTT DoCoMo Inc., 2-11-1 Nagatachou Chiyodaku, Tokyo 100-6150, Japan. College of Commerce, Nippon University, 5-2-1 Kinuta Setagayaku, Tokyo 157-8570, Japan. Department of Electrical and Electric Engineering, Kanazawa University, 2-40-20 Kodatsuno Kanazawa Ishikawa 920-8667, Japan

Abstract: This paper describes a world first development of a multipoint videophone system over third generation wireless cellular phone services using the 3G-324M circuit-based international standard protocol. A multipoint TV phone system comprises a control server and a multipoint control unit (MCU), and enables multipoint conferencing systems over 3G-324M. The picture quality is 176 by 144 picture size format (QCIF) and 10fps at 64kbps constant bitrate. The control server unit controls the conference reservations from the users, and MCU controls audio/visual processing of mixing audio and video data. Up to eight people can join the same meeting using 3G-visual terminals over 3G-324M; also, simultaneously, 60 3G-visual terminals can be connected to the system, and the number of terminals can be extensible according to market demand. In this paper, the system architecture is described. Since this system enables audio-visual communications anywhere and at anytime, audio-visual communications are expected to penetrate the market.

Keywords: 3G-cellar phone; MPEG4; multipoint TV phone system; mobile communications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2003.003493

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2003 Vol.1 No.3, pp.264 - 272

Published online: 12 Sep 2003 *

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