DYAMAND: dynamic, adaptive management of networks and devices

Consumer devices increasingly are "smart" and hence offer services that can interwork with and/or be controlled by others. However, the full exploitation of the inherent opportunities this offers, is hurdled by a number of potential limitations. First of all, the interface towards the device might be vendor and even device specific, implying that extra effort is needed to support a specific device. Standardization efforts try to avoid this problem, but within a certain standard ecosystem the level of interoperability can vary (i.e. devices carrying the same standard logo are not necessarily interoperable). Secondly, different application domains (e.g. multimedia vs. energy management) today have their own standards, thus limiting trans-sector innovation because of the additional effort required to integrate devices from traditionally different domains into novel applications. In this paper, we discuss the basic components of current so-called service discovery protocols (SDPs) and present our DYAMAND (DYnamic, Adaptive MAnagement of Networks and Devices) framework. We position this framework as a middleware layer between applications and discoverable/controllable devices, and hence aim to provide the necessary tool to overcome the (intra- and inter-domain) interoperability gaps previously sketched. Thus, we believe it can act as a catalyst enabling trans-sector innovation

Rewiring strategies for changing environments

A typical pervasive application executes in a changing environment: people, computing resources, software services and network connections come and go continuously. A robust pervasive application needs adapt to this changing context as long as there is an appropriate rewiring strategy that guarantees correct behavior. We combine the MERODE modeling methodology with the ReWiRe framework for creating interactive pervasive applications that can cope with changing environments. The core of our approach is a consistent environment model, which is essential to create (re)configurable context-aware pervasive applications. We aggregate different ontologies that provide the required semantics to describe almost any target environment. We present a case study that shows a interactive pervasive application for media access that incorporates parental control on media content and can migrate between devices. The application builds upon models of the run-time environment represented as system states for dedicated rewiring strategies

New Generation Sensor Web Enablement

Many sensor networks have been deployed to monitor Earth’s environment, and more will follow in the future. Environmental sensors have improved continuously by becoming smaller, cheaper, and more intelligent. Due to the large number of sensor manufacturers and differing accompanying protocols, integrating diverse sensors into observation systems is not straightforward. A coherent infrastructure is needed to treat sensors in an interoperable, platform-independent and uniform way. The concept of the Sensor Web reflects such a kind of infrastructure for sharing, finding, and accessing sensors and their data across different applications. It hides the heterogeneous sensor hardware and communication protocols from the applications built on top of it. The Sensor Web Enablement initiative of the Open Geospatial Consortium standardizes web service interfaces and data encodings which can be used as building blocks for a Sensor Web. This article illustrates and analyzes the recent developments of the new generation of the Sensor Web Enablement specification framework. Further, we relate the Sensor Web to other emerging concepts such as the Web of Things and point out challenges and resulting future work topics for research on Sensor Web Enablement

Grid service-based e-learning systems architecures

E-Learning has been a topic of increasing interest in recent years, due mainly to the fact that content and tool support can now be offered at a widely affordable level. As a result, many elearning platforms and systems have been developed. Client-server, peer-to-peer and recently Web services architectures often form the basis. Major drawbacks of these architectures are their limitations in terms of scalability and the availability and distribution of resources. This chapter investigates grid architectures in the context of e-learning as a proposed answer for this problem. The principles and technologies of Grid architectures are discussed and illustrated using learning technology scenarios and systems

A Revised Analysis of the Open Grid Services Infrastructure

This paper began its life as an unpublished technical review citeanalysis of the proposed Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) as described in the papers, ``The Physiology of the Grid'' citefoster by Ian Foster, Carl Kesselman, Jeffrey Nick and Steven Tuecke, and ``The Grid Service Specification (Draft 2/15/02) citeogsi'' by Foster, Kesselman, Tuecke and Karl Czajkowski, Jeffrey Frey and Steve Graham. However, much has changed since the publication of the original documents. The architecture has evolved substantially and the vast majority of our initial concerns have been addressed. In this paper we will describe the evolution of the specification from its original form to the current draft of 10/4/02 authored by S. Tuecke, K. Czajkowski, J. Frey, S. Graham, C. Kesselman, and P. Vanderbilt, which is now the central component of the Global Grid Forum Open Grid Service Infrastructure (OGSI) working group which is co-chaired by Steven Tuecke and David Snelling

Mobile support in CSCW applications and groupware development frameworks

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is an established subset of the field of Human Computer Interaction that deals with the how people use computing technology to enhance group interaction and collaboration. Mobile CSCW has emerged as a result of the progression from personal desktop computing to the mobile device platforms that are ubiquitous today. CSCW aims to not only connect people and facilitate communication through using computers; it aims to provide conceptual models coupled with technology to manage, mediate, and assist collaborative processes. Mobile CSCW research looks to fulfil these aims through the adoption of mobile technology and consideration for the mobile user. Facilitating collaboration using mobile devices brings new challenges. Some of these challenges are inherent to the nature of the device hardware, while others focus on the understanding of how to engineer software to maximize effectiveness for the end-users. This paper reviews seminal and state-of-the-art cooperative software applications and development frameworks, and their support for mobile devices

Ubiquitous Interoperable Emergency Response System

In the United States, there is an emergency dispatch for fire department services more than once every second - 31,854,000 incidents in 2012. While large scale disasters present enormous response complexity, even the most common emergencies require a better way to communicate information between personnel. Through real-time location and status updates using integrated sensors, this system can significantly decrease emergency response times and improve the overall effectiveness of emergency responses. Aside from face-to-face communication, radio transmissions are the most common medium for transferring information during emergency incidents. However, this type of information sharing is riddled with issues that are nearly impossible to overcome on a scene. Poor sound quality, the failure to hear transmissions, the inability to reach a radio microphone, and the transient nature of radio messages illustrate just a few of the problems. Proprietary and closed systems that collect and present response data have been implemented, but lack interoperability and do not provide a full array of necessary services. Furthermore, the software and hardware that run the systems are generally poorly designed for emergency response scenarios. Pervasive devices, which can transmit data without human interaction, and software using open communication standards designed for multiple platforms and form factors are two essential components. This thesis explores the issues, history, design, and implementation of a ubiquitous interoperable emergency response system by taking advantage of the latest in hardware and software, including Google Glass, Android powered mobile devices, and a cloud based architecture that can automatically scale to 7 billion requests per day. Implementing this pervasive system that transcends physical barriers by allowing disparate devices to communicate and operate harmoniously without human interaction is a step towards a practical solution for emergency response management