Context-awareness for mobile sensing: a survey and future directions

The evolution of smartphones together with increasing computational power have empowered developers to create innovative context-aware applications for recognizing user related social and cognitive activities in any situation and at any location. The existence and awareness of the context provides the capability of being conscious of physical environments or situations around mobile device users. This allows network services to respond proactively and intelligently based on such awareness. The key idea behind context-aware applications is to encourage users to collect, analyze and share local sensory knowledge in the purpose for a large scale community use by creating a smart network. The desired network is capable of making autonomous logical decisions to actuate environmental objects, and also assist individuals. However, many open challenges remain, which are mostly arisen due to the middleware services provided in mobile devices have limited resources in terms of power, memory and bandwidth. Thus, it becomes critically important to study how the drawbacks can be elaborated and resolved, and at the same time better understand the opportunities for the research community to contribute to the context-awareness. To this end, this paper surveys the literature over the period of 1991-2014 from the emerging concepts to applications of context-awareness in mobile platforms by providing up-to-date research and future research directions. Moreover, it points out the challenges faced in this regard and enlighten them by proposing possible solutions

Software Defined Application Delivery Networking

In this thesis we present the architecture, design, and prototype implementation details of AppFabric. AppFabric is a next generation application delivery platform for easily creating, managing and controlling massively distributed and very dynamic application deployments that may span multiple datacenters. Over the last few years, the need for more flexibility, finer control, and automatic management of large (and messy) datacenters has stimulated technologies for virtualizing the infrastructure components and placing them under software-based management and control; generically called Software-defined Infrastructure (SDI). However, current applications are not designed to leverage this dynamism and flexibility offered by SDI and they mostly depend on a mix of different techniques including manual configuration, specialized appliances (middleboxes), and (mostly) proprietary middleware solutions together with a team of extremely conscientious and talented system engineers to get their applications deployed and running. AppFabric, 1) automates the whole control and management stack of application deployment and delivery, 2) allows application architects to define logical workflows consisting of application servers, message-level middleboxes, packet-level middleboxes and network services (both, local and wide-area) composed over application-level routing policies, and 3) provides the abstraction of an application cloud that allows the application to dynamically (and automatically) expand and shrink its distributed footprint across multiple geographically distributed datacenters operated by different cloud providers. The architecture consists of a hierarchical control plane system called Lighthouse and a fully distributed data plane design (with no special hardware components such as service orchestrators, load balancers, message brokers, etc.) called OpenADN . The current implementation (under active development) consists of ~10000 lines of python and C code. AppFabric will allow applications to fully leverage the opportunities provided by modern virtualized Software-Defined Infrastructures. It will serve as the platform for deploying massively distributed, and extremely dynamic next generation application use-cases, including: Internet-of-Things/Cyber-Physical Systems: Through support for managing distributed gather-aggregate topologies common to most Internet-of-Things(IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems(CPS) use-cases. By their very nature, IoT and CPS use cases are massively distributed and have different levels of computation and storage requirements at different locations. Also, they have variable latency requirements for their different distributed sites. Some services, such as device controllers, in an Iot/CPS application workflow may need to gather, process and forward data under near-real time constraints and hence need to be as close to the device as possible. Other services may need more computation to process aggregated data to drive long term business intelligence functions. AppFabric has been designed to provide support for such very dynamic, highly diversified and massively distributed application use-cases. Network Function Virtualization: Through support for heterogeneous workflows, application-aware networking, and network-aware application deployments, AppFabric will enable new partnerships between Application Service Providers (ASPs) and Network Service Providers (NSPs). An application workflow in AppFabric may comprise of application services, packet and message-level middleboxes, and network transport services chained together over an application-level routing substrate. The Application-level routing substrate allows policy-based service chaining where the application may specify policies for routing their application traffic over different services based on application-level content or context. Virtual worlds/multiplayer games: Through support for creating, managing and controlling dynamic and distributed application clouds needed by these applications. AppFabric allows the application to easily specify policies to dynamically grow and shrink the application\u27s footprint over different geographical sites, on-demand. Mobile Apps: Through support for extremely diversified and very dynamic application contexts typical of such applications. Also, AppFabric provides support for automatically managing massively distributed service deployment and controlling application traffic based on application-level policies. This allows mobile applications to provide the best Quality-of-Experience to its users without This thesis is the first to handle and provide a complete solution for such a complex and relevant architectural problem that is expected to touch each of our lives by enabling exciting new application use-cases that are not possible today. Also, AppFabric is a non-proprietary platform that is expected to spawn lots of innovations both in the design of the platform itself and the features it provides to applications. AppFabric still needs many iterations, both in terms of design and implementation maturity. This thesis is not the end of journey for AppFabric but rather just the beginning

The internet of everything sustainable advantages and synergies in clustered retail

The Internet of Everything (IoE) is a concept introduced by Cisco as the succeeding phase of the Internet of Things (IoT), consisting in creating a network connection of objects, people, processes and data (Cisco 2013). The novelty in this concept is that instead of referring simply to the network connection of physical objects, the IoE allows for connected ‘things’ to send higher-level information back to machines, computers, and people for further evaluation and decision making (Cisco 2013). ! This dissertation aims to analyze the IoE concept’s strategic impact in clustered retails. In order to contextualize the concept and, later, perform the correct analysis of the subject, a review of the technologies at its core and Cisco’s perspective of IoE’s realization in retail is made. Furthermore, making up the core of sustainable strategic advantage analysis, a review is made regarding Resource-based View (RBV) model according to Barney’s framework and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) through Payne and Frow’s framework. In the subsequent chapter, the model of analysis is explained, incorporating the proposition that a smartphone application is, at a first phase, the optimal presentation layer for consumers. Empirical data collection is then performed through a questionnaire intended to give answer to the dissertation’s research question of sustainable competitive advantage. The results, collected from a population sample of 120 respondents, ascertained the importance of the smartphone app and its most appealing features. The strategic applicability of IoE in clustered retail is, then, confirmed through the application of both RBV and CRM models, which verify the system’s potential to generate sustained competitive advantage, confirming the dissertation’s main objective.A Internet of Everything (IoE) – ou a Internet de Tudo - é um conceito introduzido pela Cisco como fase sucessora da Internet of Things (IoT) – ou a Internet das Coisas -, caracterizada por criar uma rede de conectiva de objectos, pessoas, processos e informação (Cisco 2013). A novidade introduzida por este conceito é de que, em vez de fazer referência apenas à rede de conexões de objectos físicos, o IoE permite à rede de ‘coisas’ o envio de informação de qualidade superior de volta para máquinas, computadores, e pessoas para avaliações e decisões adicionais (Cisco 2013). O objectivo desta dissertação assenta na análise do impacto estratégico do conceito de IoE em retalho conglomerado. De modo a contextualizar o conceito e, mais tarde, proceder à correcta análise do tópico, uma revisão da tecnologia basilar e da perspectiva da Cisco em relação à implementação da IoE em retalho é realizada. Ademais, constituindo a origem da análise à vantagem estratégica sustentável, uma revisão é feita a ambos os modelo de Resource-base View (RBV), de acordo com enquadramento de Barney, e Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – ou Gestão de Relacionamento com o Cliente -, através do enquadramento de Payne e Frow. No capítulo subsequente, o modelo de análise é explicado, incluindo a proposição que uma aplicação para smartphone seria, numa primeira fase, o canal de ligação e apresentação ao consumidor ideal. A recolha de dados empíricos é, de seguida, executada através de um questionário, pretendendo dar resposta dar resposta à pergunta central da dissertação relativa à vantagem competitiva sustentável. Os resultados, recolhidos de uma amostra populacional de 120 inquiridos, determinaram a importância da aplicação para smartphones e quais as suas características mais apelativas. A aplicabilidade estratégica da IoE em retalho conglomerado é, assim, confirmada através da aplicação de ambos os modelos de RBV e CRM, que certificam o potencial do sistema em gerar vantagem competitiva sustentável, confirmando assim o objectivo principal da dissertação

Entrepreneurship in an Established Company

There are some fundamental differences between how you go about being innovative in a startup and how you go about it when you have more than 350 customers in 75 countries already running their business on your product. Put another way, you have to approach entrepreneurship differently when you have over 2,000 active deployments serving 40 million people every day. We faced that challenge at Movius Interactive Corporation. This article provides a description of how we took on the challenge of revitalizing innovation and entrepreneurship and how open source plays a part

Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy

The metaverse has the potential to extend the physical world using augmented and virtual reality technologies allowing users to seamlessly interact within real and simulated environments using avatars and holograms. Virtual environments and immersive games (such as, Second Life, Fortnite, Roblox and VRChat) have been described as antecedents of the metaverse and offer some insight to the potential socio-economic impact of a fully functional persistent cross platform metaverse. Separating the hype and “meta…” rebranding from current reality is difficult, as “big tech” paints a picture of the transformative nature of the metaverse and how it will positively impact people in their work, leisure, and social interaction. The potential impact on the way we conduct business, interact with brands and others, and develop shared experiences is likely to be transformational as the distinct lines between physical and digital are likely to be somewhat blurred from current perceptions. However, although the technology and infrastructure does not yet exist to allow the development of new immersive virtual worlds at scale - one that our avatars could transcend across platforms, researchers are increasingly examining the transformative impact of the metaverse. Impacted sectors include marketing, education, healthcare as well as societal effects relating to social interaction factors from widespread adoption, and issues relating to trust, privacy, bias, disinformation, application of law as well as psychological aspects linked to addiction and impact on vulnerable people. This study examines these topics in detail by combining the informed narrative and multi-perspective approach from experts with varied disciplinary backgrounds on many aspects of the metaverse and its transformational impact. The paper concludes by proposing a future research agenda that is valuable for researchers, professionals and policy makers alike

ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

In This Issue President\u27s Message From the ACUTA CEO Wireless Challenges on Campus Snapshot: And Then There\u27s Mass Notification Time to Deploy Wireless Security Cameras? Five Steps to Simplify and Secure BYOD Where Wireless Rules Coming Soon to Your Campus: Wireless loT The Federal Reserve Research Grant and FISMA Compliance Managing Privacy and Security in the Age of loT 2014 Institutional Excellence Awar

The future of Cybersecurity in Italy: Strategic focus area

This volume has been created as a continuation of the previous one, with the aim of outlining a set of focus areas and actions that the Italian Nation research community considers essential. The book touches many aspects of cyber security, ranging from the definition of the infrastructure and controls needed to organize cyberdefence to the actions and technologies to be developed to be better protected, from the identification of the main technologies to be defended to the proposal of a set of horizontal actions for training, awareness raising, and risk management

Convergence of Blockchain and Edge Computing for Secure and Scalable IIoT Critical Infrastructures in Industry 4.0

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in this recordCritical infrastructure systems are vital to underpin the functioning of a society and economy. Due to ever-increasing number of Internet-connected Internet-of-Things (IoTs) / Industrial IoT (IIoT), and high volume of data generated and collected, security and scalability are becoming burning concerns for critical infrastructures in industry 4.0. The blockchain technology is essentially a distributed and secure ledger that records all the transactions into a hierarchically expanding chain of blocks. Edge computing brings the cloud capabilities closer to the computation tasks. The convergence of blockchain and edge computing paradigms can overcome the existing security and scalability issues. In this paper, we first introduce the IoT/IIoT critical infrastructure in industry 4.0, and then we briefly present the blockchain and edge computing paradigms. After that, we show how the convergence of these two paradigms can enable secure and scalable critical infrastructures. Then, we provide a survey on state-of-the-art for security and privacy, and scalability of IoT/IIoT critical infrastructures. A list of potential research challenges and open issues in this area is also provided, which can be used as useful resources to guide future research.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Demystifying Internet of Things Security

Break down the misconceptions of the Internet of Things by examining the different security building blocks available in Intel Architecture (IA) based IoT platforms. This open access book reviews the threat pyramid, secure boot, chain of trust, and the SW stack leading up to defense-in-depth. The IoT presents unique challenges in implementing security and Intel has both CPU and Isolated Security Engine capabilities to simplify it. This book explores the challenges to secure these devices to make them immune to different threats originating from within and outside the network. The requirements and robustness rules to protect the assets vary greatly and there is no single blanket solution approach to implement security. Demystifying Internet of Things Security provides clarity to industry professionals and provides and overview of different security solutions What You'll Learn Secure devices, immunizing them against different threats originating from inside and outside the network Gather an overview of the different security building blocks available in Intel Architecture (IA) based IoT platforms Understand the threat pyramid, secure boot, chain of trust, and the software stack leading up to defense-in-depth Who This Book Is For Strategists, developers, architects, and managers in the embedded and Internet of Things (IoT) space trying to understand and implement the security in the IoT devices/platforms