A System for Rapid Configuration of Distributed Workflows over Web Services and their Handheld-Based Coordination

Web services technology has lately stirred tremendous interest in industry as well as the academia. Web services are self-contained, platform independent functionality which is available over the internet. Web services are defined, discovered & accessed using a standard protocols like WSDL, UDDI & SOAP. With the advent of Service-Oriented Architecture and need for more complex application, it became eminent to have a way in which these independent entities could collaborate in a coherent manner to provide a high level functionality. But the problem of service composition is not an easy one. One reason being the self-contained and loosely coupled interaction style, which happens to be the single most important reason for its popularity. We are proposing a prototype system for distributed coordination of web services. This system is based on the Web Bonds model for coordination. The system, dubbed BondFlow system, allows configuration and execution of workflows configured over web services. Presently BondFlow system allows both centralized as well as distributed coordination of workflows over handhelds, which we claim as an engineering feet and is currently a unique work in this area

Design and Development of a Run-Time Monitor for Multi-Core Architectures in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a new information technology trend that moves computing and data away from desktops and portable PCs into large data centers. The basic principle of cloud computing is to deliver applications as services over the Internet as well as infrastructure. A cloud is a type of parallel and distributed system consisting of a collection of inter-connected and virtualized computers that are dynamically provisioned and presented as one or more unified computing resources. The large-scale distributed applications on a cloud require adaptive service-based software, which has the capability of monitoring system status changes, analyzing the monitored information, and adapting its service configuration while considering tradeoffs among multiple QoS features simultaneously. In this paper, we design and develop a Run-Time Monitor (RTM) which is a system software to monitor the application behavior at run-time, analyze the collected information, and optimize cloud computing resources for multi-core architectures. RTM monitors application software through library instrumentation as well as underlying hardware through a performance counter optimizing its computing configuration based on the analyzed data

MobiPADS: a reflective middleware for context-aware mobile computing

distributed computing services that essentially abstract the underlying network services to a monolithic “black box. ” In a mobile operating environment, the fundamental assumption of middleware abstracting a unified distributed service for all types of applications operating over a static network infrastructure is no longer valid. In particular, mobile applications are not able to leverage the benefits of adaptive computing to optimize its computation based on current contextual situations. In this paper, we introduce the Mobile Platform for Actively Deployable Service (MobiPADS) system. MobiPADS is designed to support context-aware processing by providing an executing platform to enable active service deployment and reconfiguration of the service composition in response to environments of varying contexts. Unlike most mobile middleware, MobiPADS supports dynamic adaptation at both the middleware and application layers to provide flexible configuration of resources to optimize the operations of mobile applications. Within the MobiPADS system, services (known as mobilets) are configured as chained service objects to provide augmented services to the underlying mobile applications so as to alleviate the adverse conditions of a wireless environment. Index Terms—Middleware, mobile applications, mobile computing support services, mobile environments.

Development Of A Cloud Computing Application For Water Resources Modelling And Optimization Based On Open Source Software

Cloud computing is the latest advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that provides computing as a service or delivers computation, software, data access, storage service without end-user knowledge of the physical location and system configuration. Cloud computing, service oriented architecture and web geographic information systems are new technologies for development of the cloud computing application for water resources modelling and optimization. The cloud application is deployed and tested in a distributed computer environment running on three virtual machines (VMs). The cloud application has five web services for: (1) spatial data infrastructure – 1 (SDI), (2) SDI – 2, (3) support for water resources modelling (4) water resources optimization and 5) user authentication. The cloud application is developed using several programming languages (PHP, Ajax, Java, and JavaScript), libraries (OpenLayers and JQuery) and open-source software components (GeoServer, PostgreSQL and PostGIS) and OGC standards (WMS, WFS and WFT-T). The web services for support of water resources modelling and user authentication are deployed on Amazon Web Services and are communicating using WFS with the two SDI web services. The two SDI web services are working on the two separate VMs providing geospatial data and services. The fourth web service is deployed on a separate VM because of the expected large computational requirements. The cloud application is scalable, interoperable, creates a real time multi-user collaboration platform. All code and components used are open source. The cloud application was tested with concurrent multiple users. The performance, security and utilization of the distributed computer environment are monitored and analysed together with the users’ experience and satisfaction. The applicability of the presented solution and its future are elaborated

A Comparative Evaluation of .net Remoting and JAVA RMI

Distributed application technologies such as Micrososoft.NET Remoting, and Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) have evolved over many years to keep up with the constantly increasing requirements of the enterprise. In the broadest sense, a distributed application is one in which the application processing is divided among two or more machines. Distributed middleware technologies have made significant progress over the last decade. Although Remoting and RMI are the two of most popular contemporary middleware technologies, little literature exists that compares them. In this paper, we study the issues involved in designing a distributed system using Java RMI and Microsoft.NET Remoting. In order to perform the comparisons, we designed a distributed distance learning application in both technologies. In this paper, we show both similarities and differences between these two competing technologies. Remoting and RMI both have similar serialization process and let objects serialization to be customized according to the needs. They both provide support to be able to connect to interface definition language such as Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). They both contain distributed garbage collection support. Our research shows that programs coded using Remoting execute faster than programs coded using RMI. They both have strong support for security although implemented in different ways. In addition, RMI also has additional security mechanisms provided via security policy files. RMI requires a naming service to be able to locate the server address and connection port. This is a big advantage since the clients do not need to know the server location or port number, RMI registry locates it automatically. On the other hand, Remoting does not require a naming service; it requires that the port to connect must be pre-specified and all services must be well-known. RMI applications can be run on any operating system whereas Remoting targets Windows as the primary platform. We found it was easier to design the distance learning application in Remoting than in RMI. Remoting also provides greater flexibility in regard to configuration by providing support for external configuration files. In conclusion, we recommend that before deciding which application to choose careful considerations should be given to the type of application, platform, and resources available to program the application

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

Iris: A decentralized approach to backend messaging middlewares

In this work we introduce the design and internal workings of the Iris decentralized messaging framework. Iris takes a midway approach between the two prevalent messaging middleware models: the centralized one represented by the AMQP family and the socket queuing one represented by ZeroMQ; by turning towards peer-to-peer overlays as the internal transport for message distribution and delivery. A novel concept is introduced, whereby a distributed service is composed not of individual application instances, but rather clusters of instances responsible for the same sub-service. Supporting this new model, a collection of higher level messaging patterns have been identified and successfully implemented: broadcast, request/reply, publish/subscribe and tunnel. This conceptual model and supporting primitives allow a much simpler way to specify, design and implement distributed, cloud based services. Furthermore, the proposed system achieves a significant switching speed, which - given its decentralized nature - can be scaled better than existing messaging frameworks, whilst incurring zero configuration costs.</jats:p

CORBA-Based Distributed Software Framework for the NIF Integrated Computer Control System

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), currently under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is a stadium-sized facility containing a 192-beam, 1.8 Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, ultra-violet laser system together with a 10-meter diameter target chamber with room for nearly 100 experimental diagnostics. The NIF is operated by the Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS) which is a scalable, framework-based control system distributed over 800 computers throughout the NIF. The framework provides templates and services at multiple levels of abstraction for the construction of software applications that communicate via CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture). Object-oriented software design patterns are implemented as templates and extended by application software. Developers extend the framework base classes to model the numerous physical control points and implement specializations of common application behaviors. An estimated 140 thousand software objects, each individually addressable through CORBA, will be active at full scale. Many of these objects have persistent configuration information stored in a database. The configuration data is used to initialize the objects at system start-up. Centralized server programs that implement events, alerts, reservations, data archival, name service, data access, and process management provide common system wide services. At the highest level, a model-driven, distributed shot automation system provides a flexible and scalable framework for automatic sequencing of work-flow for control and monitoring of NIF shots. The shot model, in conjunction with data defining the parameters and goals of an experiment, describes the steps to be performed by each subsystem in order to prepare for and fire a NIF shot. Status and usage of this distributed framework are described