Ontology-Based Context-Aware Service Discovery for Pervasive Environments

Existing service discovery protocols use a service matching process in order to offer services of interest to the clients. Potentially, the context information of the services and client can be used to improve the quality of service matching. To make use of context information in service matching, service discovery needs to address certain challenges. Firstly, it is required that the context information should have unambiguous representation. Secondly, the mobile devices should be able to disseminate context information seamlessly in the fixed network. And thirdly, dynamic nature of the context information should be taken into account. The proposed Context Aware Service Discovery (CASD) architecture deals with these challenges by means of an ontological representation and processing of context information, a concept of nomadic mobile context source and a mechanism of persistent service discovery respectively. This paper discusses proposed CASD architecture, its implementation and suggests further enhancements

Transparent and scalable client-side server selection using netlets

Replication of web content in the Internet has been found to improve service response time, performance and reliability offered by web services. When working with such distributed server systems, the location of servers with respect to client nodes is found to affect service response time perceived by clients in addition to server load conditions. This is due to the characteristics of the network path segments through which client requests get routed. Hence, a number of researchers have advocated making server selection decisions at the client-side of the network. In this paper, we present a transparent approach for client-side server selection in the Internet using Netlet services. Netlets are autonomous, nomadic mobile software components which persist and roam in the network independently, providing predefined network services. In this application, Netlet based services embedded with intelligence to support server selection are deployed by servers close to potential client communities to setup dynamic service decision points within the network. An anycast address is used to identify available distributed decision points in the network. Each service decision point transparently directs client requests to the best performing server based on its in-built intelligence supported by real-time measurements from probes sent by the Netlet to each server. It is shown that the resulting system provides a client-side server selection solution which is server-customisable, scalable and fault transparent

An Architectural Framework for Collaboration of Heterogeneous Communication Devices Using WAP and Mobile Device Augmented(MDA)Gateway Integration

Within the last couple of years, the challenge of displaying collaborative multimedia information has become very important with the large diversity of communication devices such as Personal Computers, laptops, notebooks and handheld devices. The shared data and information may be presented with different views depending on the communication device used by a particular collaborator. The use of various web tools (HTML, WML etc) offers some solutions to the problem but if the target application requires more complex features such as rich multimedia data than is manageable using HTML or WML format, something else need to be done. In this paper, we propose a framework that integrates WAP and MDA Gateway to support collaboration among virtual teams and nomadic workers using heterogeneous communication devices. We then discuss an approach for augmenting mobile device small screen capabilities with surrounding large screen display device

Using Technology Enabled Qualitative Research to Develop Products for the Social Good, An Overview

This paper discusses the potential benefits of the convergence of three recent trends for the design of socially beneficial products and services: the increasing application of qualitative research techniques in a wide range of disciplines, the rapid mainstreaming of social media and mobile technologies, and the emergence of software as a service. Presented is a scenario facilitating the complex data collection, analysis, storage, and reporting required for the qualitative research recommended for the task of designing relevant solutions to address needs of the underserved. A pilot study is used as a basis for describing the infrastructure and services required to realize this scenario. Implications for innovation of enhanced forms of qualitative research are presented

Social aspects of place experience in nomadic work/life practices

This chapter examines the importance of “where” mobile work/life practices occur. By discussing excerpts of data collected through in-depth interviews with mobile professionals, we focus on the importance of place for mobility, and highlight the social character of place and the intrinsically social motivations of workers when making decisions regarding where to move. In order to show how the experience of mobility is grounded within place as a socially significant con- struct, we concentrate on three analytical themes: place as an essential component of social/collaborative work, place as expressive of organizational needs and characteristics, and place as facilitating a blending of work/life strategies and relationships

A classification of emerging and traditional grid systems

The grid has evolved in numerous distinct phases. It started in the early ’90s as a model of metacomputing in which supercomputers share resources; subsequently, researchers added the ability to share data. This is usually referred to as the first-generation grid. By the late ’90s, researchers had outlined the framework for second-generation grids, characterized by their use of grid middleware systems to “glue” different grid technologies together. Third-generation grids originated in the early millennium when Web technology was combined with second-generation grids. As a result, the invisible grid, in which grid complexity is fully hidden through resource virtualization, started receiving attention. Subsequently, grid researchers identified the requirement for semantically rich knowledge grids, in which middleware technologies are more intelligent and autonomic. Recently, the necessity for grids to support and extend the ambient intelligence vision has emerged. In AmI, humans are surrounded by computing technologies that are unobtrusively embedded in their surroundings. However, third-generation grids’ current architecture doesn’t meet the requirements of next-generation grids (NGG) and service-oriented knowledge utility (SOKU).4 A few years ago, a group of independent experts, arranged by the European Commission, identified these shortcomings as a way to identify potential European grid research priorities for 2010 and beyond. The experts envision grid systems’ information, knowledge, and processing capabilities as a set of utility services.3 Consequently, new grid systems are emerging to materialize these visions. Here, we review emerging grids and classify them to motivate further research and help establish a solid foundation in this rapidly evolving area

Model-driven dual caching For nomadic service-oriented architecture clients

Mobile devices have evolved over the years from resource constrained devices that supported only the most basic tasks to powerful handheld computing devices. However, the most significant step in the evolution of mobile devices was the introduction of wireless connectivity which enabled them to host applications that require internet connectivity such as email, web browsers and maybe most importantly smart/rich clients. Being able to host smart clients allows the users of mobile devices to seamlessly access the Information Technology (IT) resources of their organizations. One increasingly popular way of enabling access to IT resources is by using Web Services (WS). This trend has been aided by the rapid availability of WS packages/tools, most notably the efforts of the Apache group and Integrated Development Environment (IDE) vendors. But the widespread use of WS raises questions for users of mobile devices such as laptops or PDAs; how and if they can participate in WS. Unlike their “wired” counterparts (desktop computers and servers) they rely on a wireless network that is characterized by low bandwidth and unreliable connectivity.The aim of this thesis is to enable mobile devices to host Web Services consumers. It introduces a Model-Driven Dual Caching (MDDC) approach to overcome problems arising from temporarily loss of connectivity and fluctuations in bandwidth