Middleware Technologies for Cloud of Things - a survey

The next wave of communication and applications rely on the new services provided by Internet of Things which is becoming an important aspect in human and machines future. The IoT services are a key solution for providing smart environments in homes, buildings and cities. In the era of a massive number of connected things and objects with a high grow rate, several challenges have been raised such as management, aggregation and storage for big produced data. In order to tackle some of these issues, cloud computing emerged to IoT as Cloud of Things (CoT) which provides virtually unlimited cloud services to enhance the large scale IoT platforms. There are several factors to be considered in design and implementation of a CoT platform. One of the most important and challenging problems is the heterogeneity of different objects. This problem can be addressed by deploying suitable "Middleware". Middleware sits between things and applications that make a reliable platform for communication among things with different interfaces, operating systems, and architectures. The main aim of this paper is to study the middleware technologies for CoT. Toward this end, we first present the main features and characteristics of middlewares. Next we study different architecture styles and service domains. Then we presents several middlewares that are suitable for CoT based platforms and lastly a list of current challenges and issues in design of CoT based middlewares is discussed.Comment: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352864817301268, Digital Communications and Networks, Elsevier (2017

Middleware Technologies for Cloud of Things - a survey

The next wave of communication and applications rely on the new services provided by Internet of Things which is becoming an important aspect in human and machines future. The IoT services are a key solution for providing smart environments in homes, buildings and cities. In the era of a massive number of connected things and objects with a high grow rate, several challenges have been raised such as management, aggregation and storage for big produced data. In order to tackle some of these issues, cloud computing emerged to IoT as Cloud of Things (CoT) which provides virtually unlimited cloud services to enhance the large scale IoT platforms. There are several factors to be considered in design and implementation of a CoT platform. One of the most important and challenging problems is the heterogeneity of different objects. This problem can be addressed by deploying suitable "Middleware". Middleware sits between things and applications that make a reliable platform for communication among things with different interfaces, operating systems, and architectures. The main aim of this paper is to study the middleware technologies for CoT. Toward this end, we first present the main features and characteristics of middlewares. Next we study different architecture styles and service domains. Then we presents several middlewares that are suitable for CoT based platforms and lastly a list of current challenges and issues in design of CoT based middlewares is discussed.Comment: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352864817301268, Digital Communications and Networks, Elsevier (2017

Mashups: An Approach to Overcoming the Business/IT Gap in Service-Oriented Architectures

For quite a long time already, great importance has been attached to the concept of Service-Oriented Architectures for future IT-architectures. However, a major challenge in implementing this concept lies in the gap between the functional department and IT department. Mashups, an architecture also based on services, try to avoid this gap by letting the user himself integrate the services. The following article analyzes similarities and differences between both architecture approaches, and explains to what extent and in which cases Mashups could complement a Service-Oriented Architecture

Metamodels and Transformations for Software and Data Integration

Metamodels define a foundation for describing software system interfaces which can be used during software or data integration processes. The report is part of the BIZYCLE project, which examines applicability of model-based methods, technologies and tools to the large-scale industrial software and data integration scenarios. The developed metamodels are thus part of the overall BIZYCLE process, comprising of semantic, structural, communication, behavior and property analysis, aiming at facilitating and improving standard integration practice. Therefore, the project framework will be briefly introduced first, followed by the detailed metamodel and transformation description as well as motivation/illustration scenarios

Towards Message Brokers for Generative AI: Survey, Challenges, and Opportunities

In today's digital world, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) such as Large Language Models (LLMs) is becoming increasingly prevalent, extending its reach across diverse applications. This surge in adoption has sparked a significant increase in demand for data-centric GenAI models, highlighting the necessity for robust data communication infrastructures. Central to this need are message brokers, which serve as essential channels for data transfer within various system components. This survey aims to delve into a comprehensive analysis of traditional and modern message brokers, offering a comparative study of prevalent platforms. Our study considers numerous criteria including, but not limited to, open-source availability, integrated monitoring tools, message prioritization mechanisms, capabilities for parallel processing, reliability, distribution and clustering functionalities, authentication processes, data persistence strategies, fault tolerance, and scalability. Furthermore, we explore the intrinsic constraints that the design and operation of each message broker might impose, recognizing that these limitations are crucial in understanding their real-world applicability. Finally, this study examines the enhancement of message broker mechanisms specifically for GenAI contexts, emphasizing the criticality of developing a versatile message broker framework. Such a framework would be poised for quick adaptation, catering to the dynamic and growing demands of GenAI in the foreseeable future. Through this dual-pronged approach, we intend to contribute a foundational compendium that can guide future innovations and infrastructural advancements in the realm of GenAI data communication.Comment: 20 pages, 181 references, 7 figures, 5 table

Desarrollo de una aplicación educativa basada en Android para dispositivos móviles

Este artículo presenta el desarrollo de MLEA, una plataforma que facilita, a través del uso de celulares y tablets con sistema operativo Android, la movilidad de usuarios de ambientes virtuales de aprendizaje. Es una aplicación que utiliza técnicas computacionales, como “web services”, patrones de diseño, ontologías y tecnologías de computación móvil, para permitir la comunicación entre los dispositivos móviles y el sistema administrador de contenidos - Moodle. Está basada en una arquitectura cliente servidor orientada a servicios en que se combinan el protocolo REST y el formato JSON para el intercambio de datos. El cliente contará con facilidades tales como alertas, bajar archivos, participar en foros y chats, ver calificaciones, realizar ejercicios cortos y ver el calendario, entre otras.Este artículo presenta el desarrollo de MLEA, una plataforma que facilita, a través del uso de celulares y tablets con sistema operativo Android, la movilidad de usuarios de ambientes virtuales de aprendizaje. Es una aplicación que utiliza técnicas computacionales, como “web services”, patrones de diseño, ontologías y tecnologías de computación móvil, para permitir la comunicación entre los dispositivos móviles y el sistema administrador de contenidos - Moodle. Está basada en una arquitectura cliente servidor orientada a servicios en que se combinan el protocolo REST y el formato JSON para el intercambio de datos. El cliente contará con facilidades tales como alertas, bajar archivos, participar en foros y chats, ver calificaciones, realizar ejercicios cortos y ver el calendario, entre otras

Flexible GPS/GPRS based System for Parameters Monitoring in the District Heating System

Energy consumption for heating purposes accounts for a significant part of the budgets of individual and collective users. This increases the importance of issues related to the monitoring of heating energy flows, analysis of flow parameters, verification of fees and, in the first place, minimization of energy consumption. The goal of this paper is to develop, by employing Global Positioning System receivers, measurement techniques that are suited to the continuous monitoring of the heating substation parameters. This paper presents the design and implementation of GPS/GPRS (Global Positioning System/General Packet Radio Service) system for low power data acquisition using MSP430 Texas Instruments microcontroller for monitoring of the heating substation parameters. The system is implemented in heating stations for a temperature and pressure monitoring. It contains GPS/GPRS gateway and 8 analog sensor inputs. Acquisition module and the server base station are suitable for industrial applications, home applications and for other appliances. The proposed measurement procedures, which are different from commercially available measurement units, are based on general-purpose acquisition hardware and processing software, thus guaranteeing the possibility of being easily reconfigured and reprogrammed according to the specific requirements of different possible fields of application and to their future developments