MicroMAIS: executing and orchestrating Web services on constrained mobile devices

Mobile devices with their more and more powerful resources allow the development of mobile information systems in which services are not only provided by traditional systems but also autonomously executed and controlled in the mobile devices themselves. Services distributed on autonomous mobile devices allow both the development of cooperative applications without a back-end infrastructure and the development of applications blending distributed and centralized services. In this paper, we propose MicroMAIS: an integrated platform for supporting the execution of Web service-based applications natively on a mobile device. The MicroMAIS platform is composed of mAS and μ-BPEL. The former allows the execution of a single Web service, whereas the latter permits the orchestration of several Web services according to the WS-BPEL standard

A Lightweight Process Engine for Enabling Advanced Mobile Applications

The widespread dissemination of smart mobile devices offers new perspectives for timely data collection in large-scale scenarios. However, realizing sophisticated mobile data collection applications raises various technical issues like the support of different mobile operating systems and their platform-specific features. Often, specifically tailored mobile applications are implemented in order to meet particular requirements. In this context, changes of the data collection procedure become costly and profound programming skills are needed to adapt the respective mobile application accordingly. To remedy this drawback, we developed a model-driven approach, enabling end-users to create mobile data collection applications themselves. Basis to this approach are elements for flexibly defining sophisticated questionnaires, called instruments, which not only contain information about the data to be collected, but also on how the instrument shall be processed on different mobile operating systems. For the latter purpose, we provide an advanced mobile (kernel) service that is capable of processing the logic of sophisticated instruments on various platforms. The paper discusses fundamental requirements for such a kernel and introduces a generic architecture. The feasibility of this architecture is demonstrated through a prototypical implementation. Altogether, the mobile service allows for the effective use of smart mobile devices in a multitude of different data collection application scenarios (e.g., clinical and psychological trials)

Implementierung einer flexiblen Prozess-Engine auf Basis aktueller Webtechnologien

In der heutigen Zeit arbeiten immer mehr Unternehmen prozessorientiert. Arbeitsabläufe werden in grafischen Notationen erstellt, dokumentiert und anschließend nach diesem Schema ausgeführt. Um jedoch besser und schneller auf Kundenwünsche reagieren zu können, müssen Unternehmen flexibler werden. Hierfür werden zunehmend mehr anpassungsfähige, mobile Ausführungsplattformen für Geschäftsprozesse benötigt. Dazu ist eine Ausführung der Geschäftsprozesse direkt auf dem Gerät wünschenswert. Dadurch wird die Ausführung der Geschäftsprozesse unabhängig von einer Internetverbindung. Diese mobilen Ausführungsplattformen, auf denen die Geschäftsprozesse ausgeführt werden sollen, besitzen ein großes Problem: Werden sie plattformspezifisch entwickelt, können diese nur auf dem mobilen Betriebssystem ausgeführt werden, für das sie entwickelt wurden. Eine Ausführung auf einer anderen Plattform ist aufgrund der verwendeten Technologien nicht möglich. Eine Lösung für dieses Problem wäre eine plattformunabhängige Implementierung. Im Zuge dieser Arbeit wird eine flexible, mobile Ausführungsplattform entwickelt. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf der Prozessausführung und der leichten Portierbarkeit auf andere Betriebssysteme. Zudem soll die Prozess-Engine leicht erweiterbar sein, sodass sich neue Funktionen ohne große Änderungen hinzufügen lassen. Die Prozess-Engine soll in der Lage sein konditionale Verzweigungen und parallele Ausführungen behandeln zu können. Durch diese Prozess-Engine lassen sich Geschäftsprozesse mobil auf unterschiedlichen Plattformen ausführen. Dies trägt dazu bei, dass prozessorientierte Unternehmen eine weitere Möglichkeit geboten bekommen, ihre Flexibilität zu erhöhen. Somit können sie in Zukunft schneller und besser auf Kundenwünsche reagieren

Towards Flexible Process Support on Mobile Devices

Ubiquitous computing is considered as enabler for linking everyday life with information and communication technology. However, developing pervasive and mobile applications that provide personalized user assistance still constitutes a challenge. Mobile application scenarios are diverse and encompass domains like healthcare, logistics, and sales. For their support two fundamental technologies with increasing maturity are emerging: development frameworks for mobile devices and light-weight process engines. Their integrated use, however, is in a rather premature state. Generally, the use of a process engine for supporting mobile collaboration raises many challenging issues. This paper picks up some of these challenges and shows how we have coped with them in the MARPLE project. MARPLE targets at a tight integration of process management technology with mobile computing frameworks in order to enable mobile process support in advanced application scenarios. We give insights into the MARPLE architecture and its components.In particular, we introduce the MARPLE process engine, which enables light-weight as well as flexible process support on mobile devices. This will be key for mobile user assistance in advanced application scenarios

Context-Based Handling of Mobile Process Activities

Process technology constitutes a crucial component of information systems. In this context, high flexibility is required as business functions must be quickly adaptable to cope with dynamic business changes. As recent developments allow for the use of mobile devices in knowledge-intensive areas, it is often demanded to enhance process-aware information systems with mobile activity support. In general, the technical integration of this activity type with existing process management technology is challenging. For example, protocols governing the communication between mobile devices and process management systems must be adapted. If a mobile context shall be additionally considered, the integration gets even more complex. However, the use of a mobile context offers advantages. For example, the mobile activity execution time may be decreased if mobile activities are only assigned to those users whose location is beneficial. This chapter proposes an approach to enable the robust handling of single process activities on mobile devices based on a mobile process model

Mobiilse värkvõrgu protsessihaldus

Värkvõrk, ehk Asjade Internet (Internet of Things, lüh IoT) edendab lahendusi nagu nn tark linn, kus meid igapäevaselt ümbritsevad objektid on ühendatud infosüsteemidega ja ka üksteisega. Selliseks näiteks võib olla teekatete seisukorra monitoorimissüsteem. Võrku ühendatud sõidukitelt (nt bussidelt) kogutakse videomaterjali, mida seejärel töödeldakse, et tuvastada löökauke või lume kogunemist. Tavaliselt hõlmab selline lahendus keeruka tsentraalse süsteemi ehitamist. Otsuste langetamiseks (nt milliseid sõidukeid parasjagu protsessi kaasata) vajab keskne süsteem pidevat ühendust kõigi IoT seadmetega. Seadmete hulga kasvades võib keskne lahendus aga muutuda pudelikaelaks. Selliste protsesside disaini, haldust, automatiseerimist ja seiret hõlbustavad märkimisväärselt äriprotsesside halduse (Business Process Management, lüh BPM) valdkonna standardid ja tööriistad. Paraku ei ole BPM tehnoloogiad koheselt kasutatavad uute paradigmadega nagu Udu- ja Servaarvutus, mis tuleviku värkvõrgu jaoks vajalikud on. Nende puhul liigub suur osa otsustustest ja arvutustest üksikutest andmekeskustest servavõrgu seadmetele, mis asuvad lõppkasutajatele ja IoT seadmetele lähemal. Videotöötlust võiks teostada mini-andmekeskustes, mis on paigaldatud üle linna, näiteks bussipeatustesse. Arvestades IoT seadmete üha suurenevat hulka, vähendab selline koormuse jaotamine vähendab riski, et tsentraalne andmekeskust ülekoormamist. Doktoritöö uurib, kuidas mobiilsusega seonduvaid IoT protsesse taoliselt ümber korraldada, kohanedes pidevalt muutlikule, liikuvate seadmetega täidetud servavõrgule. Nimelt on ühendused katkendlikud, mistõttu otsuste langetus ja planeerimine peavad arvestama muuhulgas mobiilseadmete liikumistrajektoore. Töö raames valminud prototüüpe testiti Android seadmetel ja simulatsioonides. Lisaks valmis tööriistakomplekt STEP-ONE, mis võimaldab teadlastel hõlpsalt simuleerida ja analüüsida taolisi probleeme erinevais realistlikes stsenaariumites nagu seda on tark linn.The Internet of Things (IoT) promotes solutions such as a smart city, where everyday objects connect with info systems and each other. One example is a road condition monitoring system, where connected vehicles, such as buses, capture video, which is then processed to detect potholes and snow build-up. Building such a solution typically involves establishing a complex centralised system. The centralised approach may become a bottleneck as the number of IoT devices keeps growing. It relies on constant connectivity to all involved devices to make decisions, such as which vehicles to involve in the process. Designing, automating, managing, and monitoring such processes can greatly be supported using the standards and software systems provided by the field of Business Process Management (BPM). However, BPM techniques are not directly applicable to new computing paradigms, such as Fog Computing and Edge Computing, on which the future of IoT relies. Here, a lot of decision-making and processing is moved from central data-centers to devices in the network edge, near the end-users and IoT sensors. For example, video could be processed in mini-datacenters deployed throughout the city, e.g., at bus stops. This load distribution reduces the risk of the ever-growing number of IoT devices overloading the data center. This thesis studies how to reorganise the process execution in this decentralised fashion, where processes must dynamically adapt to the volatile edge environment filled with moving devices. Namely, connectivity is intermittent, so decision-making and planning need to involve factors such as the movement trajectories of mobile devices. We examined this issue in simulations and with a prototype for Android smartphones. We also showcase the STEP-ONE toolset, allowing researchers to conveniently simulate and analyse these issues in different realistic scenarios, such as those in a smart city.  https://www.ester.ee/record=b552551

Integrating Mobile Tasks with Business Processes: A Self-Healing Approach

Process management technology constitutes a fundamental component of any service-driven computing environment. Process management facilitates both the composition of services at design time and their orchestration at run time. In particular, when applying the service paradigm to enterprise integration management, high flexibility is required. In this context, atomic as well as composite services representing the business functions should be quickly adaptable to cope with dynamic business changes. Furthermore, they should enable mobile and quick access to enterprise information. The growing maturity of smart mobile devices has fostered their prevalence in knowledge-intensive areas in the enterprise as well. As a consequence, process management technology needs to be enhanced with mobile task support. However, tasks hitherto executed stationarily, cannot be simply transferred in order to run on smart mobile devices. Many research groups focus on the partitioning of processes and the distributed execution of the resulting fragments on smart mobile devices. Opposed to this fragmentation concept, this chapter proposes an approach to enable the robust and flexible execution of single process tasks on smart mobile devices by provisioning self-healing techniques to address the smooth integration of mobile tasks with business processes

Collaboration Support Through Mobile Processes and Entailment Constraints

The computational capability of smart mobile devices increasingly fosters their prevalence in many business domains. Along this trend, process management technology is going to be enhanced with mobile task support. However, tasks executed stationarily so far cannot be simply transfered to mobile devices. For the latter purpose, we developed an approach within the MARPLE project enabling mobile and robust task execution in the context of business processes. In particular, this approach provides self-healing techniques that relieve mobile users from manually handling errors (e.g., lost connections) during mobile task execution. In this paper, we extend the collaboration facilities of our approach by adding entailment constraints to mobile task management. In the context of a business process, for example, two tasks may have to be executed by the same (mobile) user. Related research on integrating such constraints with business processes has received growing attention recently. However, realizing entailment constraints in the context of mobile processes and tasks raises additional issues, which must be probably integrated with the mentioned error handling techniques. We present fundamental entailment constraints supported by our approach and discuss how they can be realized in a robust and flexible manner. In particular, this will significantly enhance mobile task and process support in next generation information systems