An Automatic Driver Deployment Mechanism In The Osgi Gateway For Smart Homes

Smart home consists of smart appliances that provide services to home users. Home users should be able to purchase additional new smart appliance anytime and use it instantly at home without any configuration involved. In this thesis, we explore a typical scenario for smart homes that utilizes an OSGi-powered residential gateway that provides interoperation between heterogeneous smart appliances. Drivers play a significant role in OSGi gateway to provide an integral aspect of services to users, as interoperation can only be possible if the gateway recognizes all heterogeneous smart appliances. An enhancement to OSGi Device Manager named A-ODM (Advance-OSGi Device Manager) is proposed to provide a zeroconfiguration environment to smart homes. A-ODM is an automatic driver deployment mechanism for OSGi gateway to resolve driver dependency externally.A smart home simulation with driver provisioning architecture have been designed and implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of a network delivery of driver provisioning through web service architecture. A-ODM is tested on several OSGi implementations to compare its performance. We observed that A-ODM performed better in OSGi implementations with smaller footprint

Network and service monitoring in heterogeneous home networks

Home networks are becoming dynamic and technologically heterogeneous. They consist of an increasing number of devices which offer several functionalities and can be used for many different services. In the home, these devices are interconnected using a mixture of networking technologies (for example, Ethernet, Wifi, coaxial cable, or power-line). However, interconnecting these devices is often not easy. The increasing heterogeneity has led to significant device- and service-management complexity. In addition, home networks provide a critical "last meters" access to the public telecom and Internet infrastructure and have a dramatic impact on to the end-to-end reliability and performance of services from these networks. This challenges service providers not only to maintain a satisfactory quality of service level in such heterogeneous home networks, but also to remotely monitor and troubleshoot them. The present thesis work contributes research and several solutions in the field of network and service monitoring in home networks, mainly in three areas: (1) providing automatic device- and service-discovery and configuration, (2) remote management, and (3) providing quality of service (QoS). With regard to the first area, current service discovery technology is designed to relieve the increasing human role in network and service administration. However, the relevant Service Discovery Protocols (SDPs) are lacking crucial features namely: (1) they are not platform- and network-independent, and (2) they do not provide sufficient mechanisms for (device) resource reservation. Consequently, devices implementing different SDPs cannot communicate with each other and share their functionalities and resources in a managed way, especially when they use different network technologies. As a solution to the first problem, we propose a new proxy server architecture that enables IP-based devices and services to be discovered on non-IP based network and vice versa. We implemented the proxy architecture using UPnP respectively Bluetooth SDP as IP- and non-IP-based SDPs. The proxy allows Bluetooth devices and UPnP control points to discover, access, and utilize services located on the other network. Validation experiments with the proxy prototype showed that seamless inter-working can be achieved keeping all proxy functionalities on a single device, thus not requiring modification of currently existing UPnP and Bluetooth end devices. Although the proxy itself taxes the end-to-end performance of the service, it is shown to be still acceptable for an end user. For mitigating resource conflicts in SDPs, we propose a generic resource reservation scheme with properties derived from common SDP operation. Performance studies with a prototype showed that this reservation scheme significantly improves the scalability and sustainability of service access in SDPs, at a minor computational cost. With regard to the second area, it is known that the end-to-end quality of Internet services depends crucially on the performance of the home network. Consequently, service providers require the ability to monitor and configure devices in the home network, behind the home gateway (HG). However, they can only put limited requirements to these off-the-shelf devices, as the consumer electronics market is largely outside their span of control. Therefore they have to make intelligent use of the given device control and management protocols. In this work, we propose an architecture for remote discovery and management of devices in a highly heterogeneous home network. A proof-of-concept is developed for the remote management of UPnP devices in the home with a TR-069/UPnP proxy on the HG. Although this architecture is protocol specific, it can be easily adapted to other web-services based protocols. Service providers are also asking for diagnostic tools with which they can remotely troubleshoot the home networks. One of these tools should be able to gather information about the topology of the home network. Although topology discovery protocols already exist, nothing is known yet about their performance. In this work we propose a set of key performance indicators for home network topology discovery architectures, and how they should be measured. We applied them to the Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol and the Link-Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP). Our performance measurement results show that these protocols do not fulfill all the requirements as formulated by the service providers. With regard to the third area, current QoS solutions are mostly based on traffic classification. Because they need to be supported by all devices in the network, they are relatively expensive for home networks. Furthermore, they are not interoperable between different networking technologies. Alternative QoS provision techniques have been proposed in the literature. These techniques require end-user services to pragmatically adapt their properties to the actual condition of the network. For this, the condition of the home network in terms of its available bandwidth, delay, jitter, etc., needs to be known in real time. Appropriate tools for determining the available home network resources do not yet exist. In this work we propose a new method to probe the path capacity and available bandwidth between a server and a client in a home network. The main features of this method are: (a) it does not require adaptation of existing end devices, (b) it does not require pre-knowledge of the link-layer network topology, and (c) it is accurate enough to make reliable QoS predictions for the most relevant home applications. To use these predictions for effective service- or content-adaptation or admission control, one should also know how the state of the home network is expected to change immediately after the current state has been probed. However, not much is known about the stochastic properties of traffic in home networks. Based on a relatively small set of traffic observations in several home networks in the Netherlands, we were able to build a preliminary model for home network traffic dynamics

Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

High-Speed Communications Over Polymer Optical Fibers for In-Building Cabling and Home Networking

This paper focuses on high-speed cabling using polymer optical fibers (POF) in home networking. In particular, we report about the results obtained in the POF-ALL European Project, which is relevant to the Sixth Framework Program, and after two years of the European Project POF-PLUS, which is relevant to the Seventh Framework Program, focusing on their research activities about the use of poly-metyl-metha-acrilate step-index optical fibers for home applications. In particular, for that which concerns POF-ALL, we will describe eight-level pulse amplitude modulation (8-PAM) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) approaches for 100-Mb/s transmission over a target distance of 300 m, while for that which concerns POF-PLUS, we will describe a fully digital and a mixed analog-digital solution, both based on intensity modulation direct detection, for transmitting 1 Gb/s over a target distance of 50 m. The ultimate experimental results from the POF-ALL project will be given, while for POF-PLUS, which is still ongoing, we will only show our most recent preliminary results

Broadband services virtual operator for bitstream open-access networks: business case and infrastructure

The aim of this thesis is to study the technical and business model for the creation of a virtual operator for bitstream access networks in Catalonia, in the modality of carrier’s carrier. The substrate for this project is Xarxa Oberta network. Xarxa Oberta is a project which is under way at present and that will ultimately provide a backbone network connecting all municipalities in Catalonia. Open access networks are being deployed across Spain to provide access to broadband services where this was previously either not possible or not competitive. Additionally, multiple access networks are already deployed which currently subcontract interconnection and advanced services from third parties. Xarxa Oberta offers the opportunity to create a bitstream virtual operator that offers its services to local service providers in several access networks across Catalonia. The technical model uses both Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and Hybrid Fibre-Coax (HFC) technologies to develop a reference model for access network deployments, including both existing and open access network operators as potential customers. A complete open source stack is proposed to deploy Network Management System (NMS) and Operation and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS). The infrastructure is defined, including equipment selection and deployment. A business plan is detailed to analyse the viability of the project. The key activities, resources, channels, costs, revenues, etc are presented in detail. This business plan serves as a basis for the business model, which studies the economic viability of the operator. Various scenarios are studied, each with different values for the main parameters (such as network size, number of networks, etc.). The results of these models give a structured view of the viability of the business for this virtual operator

Validation of "triple-play" services in the access node

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesCom o grande crescimento das comunicações fixas, as tecnologias de fornecimento de acesso à Internet, como o cabo (CATV) e o par de cobre (xDSL), têm possibilitado o fornecimento de serviços adicionais para além do típico acesso à Internet de Banda Larga (em que, desde há vários anos o serviço de televisão já existe na tecnologia de cabo). Assim sendo, e ainda devido a uma forte concorrência entre operadores de cabo e de “cobre”, o DSL Forum apresenta uma solução de arquitectura da rede de acesso e agregação que permite a migração da tradicional tecnologia ATM para Ethernet, em tecnologias baseadas em xDSL. A migração da arquitectura para uma rede baseada em Ethernet permite o fornecimento de serviços adicionais que exijam altos débitos, qualidade de serviço, transmissão de multicast, VOIP, entre outros. A presente tese apresenta os requisitos propostos pelo DSL Forum para o equipamento da rede de acesso e agregação: o nó de acesso (DSLAM), e um conjunto de testes conducentes à validação dos mesmos em laboratório, simulando uma possível rede de fornecedor de serviços. ABSTRACT: With the large growth of fixed communications, the technology that provides Internet access, such as cable (CATV) and copper (xDSL), need to enable the provision of additional services beyond the typical broadband Internet access (where, television service already exists for several years over cable technology). Thus, because of strong competition between cable and copper operators , DSL Forum presents an architecture and aggregation solution for the xDSL based access networks that allows the migration of traditional ATM technology to Ethernet. The migration of the architecture to Ethernet based network is due to the high speeds offer, and the possibility of additional services supporting quality of service, multicast transmission, VOIP, amongst others. This thesis presents the requirements proposed by the DSL Forum for the equipment of the access network and aggregation: access node (DSLAM), and their validation in a laboratory environment, simulating service provision scenarios