The foundation of multimedia distribution is provided by several components, the most important ones being services, content distribution
chain and protocols. The fundamental idea is to use the Internet for
content acquisition, management and delivery to provide, e.g., Internet
Protocol Television (IPTV) infrastructure with Quality of Service (QoS)
facilities. Another important goal is to offer the end user the so-called
Triple Play, which means grouping together Internet access, TV and
telephone services in one subion on a broadband connection. Other
important issues are billing, copyright, encryption and authentication.......