This authoritative guide is the first to provide a complete system design perspective based on existing international standards and state-of-the-art networking and infrastructure technologies, from theoretical analyses to practical design considerations. The four most critical components involved in a multimedia networking system - data compression, quality of service (QoS), communication protocols, and effective digital rights management - are intensively addressed. Many real-world commercial systems and prototypes are also introduced, as are software samples and integration examples, allowing readers to understand practical tradeoffs in the design of multimedia architectures, and get hands-on experience learning the methodologies and procedures. Balancing just the right amount of theory with practical design and integration knowledge, this book is ideal for graduate students and researchers in electrical engineering and computer science, and also for practitioners in the communications and networking industry. It can also be used as a textbook for specialized graduate-level courses on multimedia networking.