Application Layer Protocol for Haptic Networking

Abstract

The transmission of haptic information over the network has recently received significant attention. The wide spectrum of haptic applications makes it difficult to capture the widely varying requirements of these applications into one generic protocol. In this paper, we introduce ALPHAN (Application Layer Protocol for Haptic Networking), a novel application layer protocol for haptic communication. The protocol is strategically placed at the application layer so that it can easily be customized according to the application requirements and needs. An extension to the HAptic Meta-Language (HAUL) is proposed to define its networking parameters. The protocol introduces the concept of Multiple Buffering where priorities are attributed to different sending buffers in a collaborative haptic environment. The protocol also supports some concepts introduced in previous haptic communication protocols like local lag and key packets.