2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 45, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1998
Guest Editorial
Special Section on Multimedia and Communication
M
ULTIMEDIA and associated communication technology have emerged in the industrial environment for the enhancement of productivity. Video, image, and audio compression technologies enable the storage and communication of vast quantities of real-world information. Multimedia technologies hold great promise for changing the infrastructure of industrial automation, due to the availability of a vast quantity of information and its associated management. The emerging high-performance computer networks, such as switched local area networks (LAN’s), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, and the broad-band Integrated Service Digital Network (BISDN), provide the means for communicating voice, data, and video in real time. Wireless LAN and personal communication systems (PCS’s) mobilize communication for factory cells and field service using personal digital assistants (PDA’s). Consequently, these emerging technologies enable applications which foster the development of industrial automation and its associated information management. The intent of this special section is to provide a forum for addressing both the fundamental and applied aspects of this viable technology.A tutorial paper, which describes both the technology and standards associated with multimedia and multimedia commu-nication, will permit readers unfamiliar with this area to quickly grasp the significance of this rapidly advancing technology. An invited paper presents one of the newest developments in Motion Picture Expert Group-4 (MPEG-4 ), i.e., a content-based approach to video compression. This special section includes both theoretical and experimental contributions in the following subjects: 1) multimedia encoding techniques, as well as multimedia communication including video on demand (VOD); 2) ATM connection admission control; 3) ATM available bit rate (ABR) control; and 4) a transport layer used in broad-band multimedia communication.
The Guest Editors would like to express their appreciation to the authors for the high quality of their contributions, which document the state of the art in multimedia and multimedia communication. Special thanks are due to Prof. Joachim Holtz, Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ONINDUSTRIALELECTRONICSand Prof. James C. Hung, former Editor of this TRANSACTIONS, for their support and encouragement, which made this Special Section possible. The Guest Editors are also indebted to the referees who performed their assigned tasks in a very timely manner, which permitted this Special Section to go to press on schedule. The Guest Editors also acknowledge the excellent support of Betty Kelley in handling the manuscripts, the associated correspondence with authors and reviewers, and the organization of a significant amount of information. Without her dedication, it would have been impossible to organize this special section in a short time frame.
CHWAN-HWA“JOHN” WU, Guest Editor Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849-5201 USA MARIAC. YUANG, Guest Editor National Chiao Tung University Hsinchu, 30050 Taiwan, R.O.C. J. DAVID IRWIN, Guest Editor Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849-5201 USA
Publisher Item Identifier S 0278-0046(98)00417-1.
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Chwan-Hwa “John” Wu (M’88–SM’93) received the B.S. degree from the National Chiao
Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1980 and the Ph.D. degree from the Polytechnic Institute of New York, Brooklyn, in 1987.
In 1987, he joined the faculty of Auburn University, Auburn, AL, where he is currently an Alumni Professor of Electrical Engineering. He has been the Principal Investigator on research projects funded by the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, and Cray Research, Inc. His current research interests include multimedia communication, video compression and conferencing, gaseous electronics, neural network and fuzzy logic theory and applications, computer networks, parallel processing, and optical computing. He has authored or coauthored more than 160 scientific and technical publications and is the holder of a U.S. patent.
Dr. Wu is a member of Sigma Xi, Eta Kappa Nu, the International Network Society, the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineering, and the International Society of Computer Simulation. He has served as a Committee Member and Referee for numerous IEEE conferences and journals. He has also been a Guest Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ONPLASMASCIENCEand the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ONINDUSTRIAL
ELECTRONICS. He is currently an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIALELECTRONICS.
Maria C. Yuang (M’91) received the B.S. degree in applied mathematics from the National
Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1978, the M.S. degree in computer science from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1981, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Polytechnic Institute of New York, Brooklyn, in 1989.
From 1981 to 1990, she was with AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), where she was a Member of the Technical Staff, working with high-speed networking and protocol engineering. Since 1990, she has been an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chiao Tung University. Her current research interests include high-speed networking, multimedia communications, performance analysis, and network management.
J. David Irwin (S’60–M’63–SM’71–F’82) received the B.E.E. degree from Auburn University,
Auburn, AL, in 1961 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1962 and 1967, respectively.
He is an Earle C. Williams Eminent Scholar and Head of the Electrical Engineering Department, Auburn University, Auburn, AL. He has more than 30 years experience in engineering education. His career includes service as Chairman of both the Southeastern and National Associations of Electrical Engineering Department Heads, and he is the Past President of both the IEEE Industrial Electronics and IEEE Education Societies. He is also the recipient of numerous awards related to engineering education. He is the author of five editions of Basic Engineering Circuit Analysis (New York: Macmillan, 1984, 1987, 1989, 1993; Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1996). He is also the coauthor of four other textbooks:
An Introduction to Computer Logic, Industrial Noise and Vibration Control, Introduction to Electrical Engineering, and Digital Logic Circuit Analysis and Design (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1975, 1979, 1995, and 1995, respectively). He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Industrial Electronics Handbook, (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, to be published).
