Decoupling User Interface Design Using Libraries of Reusable Components

The integration of electronic and mechanical hardware, software and interaction design presents a challenging design space for researchers developing physical user interfaces and interactive artifacts. Currently in the academic research community, physical user interfaces and interactive artifacts are predominantly designed and prototyped either as one-off instances from the ground up, or using functionally rich hardware toolkits and prototyping systems. During this prototyping phase, undertaking an integral design of the interface or interactive artifact’s electronic hardware is frequently constraining due to the tight couplings between the different design realms and the typical need for iterations as the design matures. Several current toolkit designs have consequently embraced component-sharing and component-swapping modular designs with a view to extending flexibility and improving researcher freedom by disentangling and softening the cause-effect couplings. Encouraged by early successes of these toolkits, this research work strives to further enhance these freedoms by pursuing an alternative style and dimension of hardware modularity. Another motivation is our goal to facilitate the design and development of certain classes of interfaces and interactive artifacts for which current electronic design approaches are argued to be restrictively constraining (e.g., relating to scale and complexity). Unfortunately, this goal of a new platform architecture is met with conceptual and technical challenges on the embedded system networking front. In response, this research investigates and extends a growing field of multi-module distributed embedded systems. We identify and characterize a sub-class of these systems, calling them embedded aggregates. We then outline and develop a framework for realizing the embedded aggregate class of systems. Toward this end, this thesis examines several architectures, topologies and communication protocols, making the case for and substantial steps toward the development of a suite of networking protocols and control algorithms to support embedded aggregates. We define a set of protocols, mechanisms and communication packets that collectively form the underlying framework for the aggregates. Following the aggregates design, we develop blades and tiles to support user interface researchers

IPv6 Deployment in a Service Provider's Data Center Network

Tämä diplomityö on tehty toimeksiantona Capgemini Finland Oy:lle (myöh. Capgemini). Sen tavoitteena on ottaa IPv6-protokolla käyttöön Capgeminin konesaliverkossa niin, että se on saavutettavissa Internetistä IPv4-protokollan lisäksi myös IPv6-protokollalla. Työn ensimmäisessä luvussa kerrotaan lyhyesti siitä, mitkä tämän työn taustat ja tavoitteet ovat sekä minkä ongelman ja osaongelmat se ratkaisee. Toisessa luvussa kerrotaan, mitkä IPv4-protokollan ongelmat ovat ja miksi IPv6-protokolla lopulta korvaa sen. Kolmannessa luvussa esitellään IPv6-protokollaa ja sen tukiprotokollia IETF:n (Internet Engineering Task Force) RFC-dokumenttien (Request For Comments) ja kirjallisuuden pohjalta. Neljännessä luvussa perehdytään lyhyesti IPv6-protokollan tietoturvaan IPv6-käyttöönottoon liittyen ja kerrotaan, millaisia IPv6-transitiomekanismeja on olemassa. Viidennessä luvussa näytetään ensin tyypillinen palvelinkeskuksen konesaliverkon verkkotopologia ja esitellään sen jälkeen Capgeminin konesaliverkon rakenne. Kuudennessa luvussa yhdistetään Capgeminin konesaliverkko Internetiin IPv6-protokollalla ja rakennetaan Capeminin laboratorioon IPv6-testiverkko. Luvussa kehitetään myös konsepti, jolla voidaan provisioida IPv6-protokollalla toimiva www-palvelu Capgeminin konesaliverkossa mahdollisimman helposti ja kustannustehokkaasti. Lopuksi seitsemännessä luvussa käydään läpi IPv6-käyttöönoton tulokset, seuraukset ja siinä esiintyneet haasteet sekä tehdään suunnitelma siitä, mitkä ovat seuraavat askeleet IPv6-protokollan laajemmalle käyttöönotolle Capgeminin konesaliverkossa.This Master's thesis was done for Capgemini Finland Oy (later referred to as Capgemini). The objective of the thesis is to deploy the IPv6 protocol in Capgemini's data center network so that it is reachable from the Internet also via IPv6 in addition to IPv4. In the first chapter of the thesis the background and objectives of the thesis in addition to the problem it solves are discussed. In the second chapter the inadequacy of the IPv4 protocol and the reasons why IPv6 will eventually replace it are explained. In the third chapter the IPv6 base protocol and its supporting protocols are presented based on RFC (Request For Comments) documents published by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and literature. In the fourth chapter IPv6 security with respect to the IPv6 deployment and IPv6 transition mechanisms are introduced. In the fifth chapter, a typical data center network topology is first shown after which the Capgemini data center network is showcased. In the sixth chapter the Capgemini data center network is connected to the Internet via IPv6 and an IPv6 test network is set up in the Capgemini laboratory. A proof of concept to provision an IPv6 web service in the Capgemini data center network with minimal capital and operational expenditure is also developed. Finally, in the seventh chapter the results, consequences and challenges of the IPv6 deployment are reviewed and a plan is made as to what the next steps for a more comprehensive IPv6 deployment in the Capgemini data center network are