MuStServ: A Lightweight Multimedia Streaming Server

Media streaming is no longer a new term, more so after broadband internet connection has become more of a necessity than luxury in most homes. This paper proposed a streaming solution called Lightweight Multimedia Streaming server, MutStServ, for multimedia files that would utilize as little system resources as possible and is platform independent. A comparative study was conducted to determine the most suitable programming language among Python, Java, and Perl. HTTP streaming protocol was chosen as the transfer mode of choice because it is easier to implement compared to User Transfer Protocol UDP. Experimental results showed that MutServ consumes significantly lower memory compared to Apache, one of the most popular ways to implement HTTP streamer. The usage of efficient programming language, good architecture and sheer simplicity in its design are the main factors contributing to MutStServ’s lightweight.