CSA302: January 2001 Assessed Assignment

Deadline

The deadline for submitting this assignment is Monday, January 8th, 2000 at midday. Submitting the assignment after this time will result in the deduction of marks.

Submission Procedures

This assessed assignment is worth 40% of the total marks for this credit. Consequently, you must ensure that your name does not appear on the title page or anywhere in the assignment.

When you submit the assignment (to Carm Vella, Rm 202, Computer Science Building in the case of BSc IT students, and to Marlene Debono, Rm 203, Computer Science Building for all other students) you will be given an official cover sheet to fill in.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism will not be tolerated, and evidence of plagiarism in the assigment will result in a failure and possible expulsion from the degree programme. References must be properly attributed, whether obtained from paper-based sources or from the Internet. If you are unsure of how to construct a bibliography and how to reference entries from the body of the text, please tell me.

Assignment

The assignment is in the form of a 1200 word essay. Please do not exceed the word limit. The essay may be printed or hand-written. If it is hand-written, please ensure that it is legible! The pages must be numbered and must show the total number of pages (e.g., page 1 of 4).

Assignment Question

The number of World-Wide Web sites which deliver live audio over the Internet is growing on a daily basis. Write an essay which describes the process of delivering a live audio broadcast, such as from a radio station, over the Internet. You should describe a method to convert an analogue audio signal to a digital signal, to transport the digital signal over the Internet, and to convert the digital signal back to an analogue signal at the client. What are the major issues? What are the technical advantages and disadvantages of broadcasting live multimedia data over the Internet? How can synchronicity within the audio signal be maintained from audio capture to delivery to the client? What are the possible effects of an increase in the number of clients receiving the broadcast, and how can the effects be counteracted or managed?