Active Coordination in Ad Hoc Networks

The increasing ubiquity of communicating mobile devices and vastly different mobile application needs have led to the emergence of middleware models for ad hoc networks that simplify application programming. One such system, EgoSpaces, addresses specific needs of individual applications, allowing them to define what data is included in their operating context using declarative specifications constraining properties of data, agents that own the data, hosts on which those agents are running, and attributes of the ad hoc network. In the resulting coordination model, application agents interact with a dynamically changing environment through a set of views, or custom defined projections of the set of data present in the surrounding ad hoc network. This paper builds on EgoSpaces by allowing agents to assign behaviors to their personal-ized views. Behaviors consist of actions that are automatically performed in response to specified changes in a view. Behaviors discussed in this paper encompass reactive programming, transparent data migration, automatic data duplication, and event capture. Formal semantic definitions and programming examples are given for each behavior

A Protocol for Supporting Context Provision in Wireless Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

The increasing ubiquity of mobile computing devices has made ad hoc networks everyday occurrences. In these highly dynamic environments, the multitude of devices provides a varied and rapidly changing environment in which applications must learn to operate. Successful end-user applications will not only learn to function in this environment but will take advantage of the variety of information available. Protocols for gathering an application’s contextual information must be built into the network to function in a timely and adaptive fashion. This paper presents a protocol for providing context information to such applications. We present an implementation and show how it provides context information to mobile applications in an on-demand manner. We also provide a simulation analysis of the tradeoffs between consistency and range of context definitions in highly dynamic ad hoc networks

Supporting Context-Aware Application Development in Ad Hoc Mobile Networks

Some of the most dynamic systems being built today consist of physically mobile hosts and logically mobile agents. Such systems exhibit frequent configuration changes and a great deal of resource variability. Applications executing under these circumstances need to react continuously and rapidly to changes in operating conditions and must adapt their behavior accordingly. Applications with these capabilities are referred to as context-aware. Much of the current work on context-aware computing relies on information directly available to an application via context sensors on its local host, e.g., user profile, host location, time of day, resource availability, and quality of service measurements. The work reported in this dissertation starts by building a new perspective on context-awareness, in which the context includes, in principle, any information available in the ad hoc network but is restricted, in practice, to specific projections of the overall context. This work reports on the design and implementation of a middleware model that brings this notion of context to the application programmer. Another important aspect of the software engineering process is the ability to reason formally about the programs we create. This dissertation details initial steps to create formal reasoning mechanisms dedicated to the needs of context-aware applications. The results of this work simplify application development in ad hoc mobile networks from a design and implementation perspective and through formal reasoning

Egocentric Context-Aware Programming in Ad Hoc Mobile Environments

Some of the most dynamic systems being built today consist of physically mobile hosts and logically mobile agents. Such systems exhibit frequent configuration changes and a great deal of resource variability. Applications executing under these circumstances need to react continuously and rapidly to changes in operating conditions and must adapt their behavior accordingly. The development of such applications demands a reexamination of the very notion of context and of the mechanisms used to manage the application response to contextual changes. This paper introduces EgoSpaces, a coordination model and middleware for ad hoc mobile environments. EgoSpaces focuses on the needs of application development in ad hoc environments by proposing an agent-centered notion of context, called a view, whose scope extends beyond the local host to data and resources associated with hosts and agents within an entire subnet surrounding the agent of interest. An agent may operate over multiple views whose definitions may change over time. An agent uses declarative specifications to constrain the contents of each view by employing a rich set of constraints that take into consideration properties of the individual data items, of the agents that own them, the hosts on which the agents reside, and of the physical and logical topology of the ad hoc network. This paper formalizes the concept of view, explores the notion of programming against views, and discusses possible implementation strategies for transparent context maintenance. We include examples to illustrates the expressive power of the view abstraction and to related it to other research on coordination models and middleware

Using EgoSpaces for Scalable, Proactive Coordination in Ad Hoc Networks **PLEASE SEE WUCSE-03-11**

The increasing ubiquity of mobile devices has led to an explosion in the development of applications tailored to the particular needs of individual users. As the research community gains experience in the development of these applications, the need for middleware to simplify such software development is rapidly expanding. Vastly different needs of these various applications, however, have led to the emergence of many different middleware models, each of which approaches the dissemination of contextual information in a distinct way. The EgoSpaces model consists of logically mobile agents that operate over physically mobile hosts. EgoSpaces addresses the specific needs of individual agents, allowing them to define what data is to be included in their operating context by means of declarative specifications constraining properties of the data items, the agents that own the data, the hosts on which those agents are running, and attributes of the ad hoc network. The resulting model is one in which agents interact with a dynamically changing environment through a set of views, custom defined projections of the set of data objects present in the surrounding ad hoc network. This paper builds on EgoSpaces by allowing agents to assign automatic behaviors to the agent-defined views. Behaviors consist of actions which are automatically performed in response to specified changes in the view. Behaviors discussed in this paper encompass reactive programming, transparent data migration, automatic data duplication, and event capture. Formal semantic definitions are given for each behavior. Since performance is a real concern in the ad hoc environment, this paper also presents protocol implementations tailored to each behavior type

Active Coordination in Ad Hoc Networks

The increasing ubiquity of mobile devices has led to an explosion in the development of applications tailored to the particular needs of individual users. As the research community gains experience in the development of these applications, the need for middleware to simplify such software development is rapidly expanding. Vastly different needs of these various applications, however, have led to the emergence of many different middleware models, each of which approaches the dissemination of contextual information in a distinct way. The EgoSpaces model consists of logically mobile agents that operate over physically mobile hosts. EgoSpaces addresses the specific needs of individual agents, allowing them to define what data is to be included in their operating context by means of declarative specifications constraining properties of the data items, the agents that own the data, the hosts on which those agents are running, and attributes of the ad hoc network. In the resulting coordination model, agents interact with a dynamically changing environment through a set of views, custom defined projections of the set of data objects present in the surrounding ad hoc network. This paper builds on EgoSpaces by allowing agents to assign automatic behaviors to the agent-defined views. Behaviors consist of actions which are automatically performed in response to specified changes in the view. Behaviors discussed in this paper encompass reactive programming, transparent data migration, automatic data duplication, and event capture. Formal semantic definitions and programming examples are given for each behavior

Vitamin A Supplementation For Postpartum Women

Background In areas where vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a public health concern, the maternal dietary intake of vitamin A may be not sufficient to meet either the maternal nutritional requirements, or those of the breastfed infant, due the low retinol concentrations in breast milk. Objectives To evaluate the effects of vitamin A supplementation for postpartum women on maternal and infant health. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (8 February 2016), LILACS (1982 to December 2015), Web of Science (1945 to December 2015), and the reference lists of retrieved studies. Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or cluster-randomised trials that assessed the effects of vitamin A supplementation for postpartum women on maternal and infant health (morbidity, mortality and vitamin A nutritional status). Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently assessed trials for inclusion, conducted data extraction, assessed risk of bias and checked for accuracy. We assessed the quality of the evidence using the GRADE approach. Main results Fourteen trials of mainly low or unclear risk of bias, enrolling 25,758 women and infant pairs were included. The supplementation schemes included high, single or double doses of vitamin A (200,000 to 400,000 internation units (IU)), or 7.8 mg daily beta-carotene compared with placebo, no treatment, other (iron); or higher (400,000 IU) versus lower dose (200,000 IU). In all trials, a considerable proportion of infants were at least partially breastfed until six months.3Cochrane Editorial Unit, U

A Software Engineering Perspective on Context-Awareness in Ad Hoc Mobile Environments

Context-aware mobile applications require constant adaptation to their changing environments. Technological advancements have increased the pervasiveness of mobile computing devices such as laptops, handhelds, cellular phones, and embedded sensors. The sheer amount of context information necessary for adaptation places a heightened burden on application developers as they must manage and utilize vast amounts of data from diverse sources. Facilitating programming in this data-rich environment requires an infrastructure for sensing, collecting, and providing context information to applications. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of providing such an infrastructure. It allows programmers to focus on high-level interactions among programs and to employ declarative abstract specifications of context in settings that exhibit high levels of mobility and transient interactions with opportunistically encountered components. We also discuss the novel context-aware abstractions we implemented and the programming knowledge necessary to write applications using our middleware. Finally, we provide examples that demonstrate the flexibility of the infrastructure and its ability to support a variety of applications

Simplifying Context-Aware Agent Coordination Using Context-Sensitive Data Structures

Context-aware computing, an emerging paradigm in which applications sense and adapt their behavior to changes in their operational environment, is key to developing dependable agent-based soft-ware systems for use in the often unpredictable settings of ad hoc net-works. However, designing an application agent which interacts with other agents to gather, maintain, and adapt to context can be a difficult undertaking in an open and continuously changing environment, even for a seasoned programmer. Our goal is to simplify the programming task by hiding the details of agent coordination from the programmer, allowing one to quickly and reliably produce a context-aware application agent for use in large-scale ad hoc networks. With this goal in mind, we introduce a novel abstraction called context-sensitive data structures (CSDS). The programmer interacts with the CSDS through a familiar programming interface, without direct knowledge of the context gathering and maintenance tasks that occur behind the scenes. In this paper, we define a model of context-sensitive data structures, and we identify key requirements and issues associated with building an infrastructure to support the development of context-sensitive data structures

Relying on Safe Distance to Achieve Strong Partitionable Group Membership in Ad Hoc Networks

The design of ad hoc mobile applications often requires the availability of a consistent view of the application state among the participating hosts. Such views are important because they simplify both the programming and verification tasks. We argue that preventing the occurrence of unannounced disconnection is essential to constructing and maintaining a consistent view in the ad hoc mobile environment. In this light, we provide the specification for a partitionable group membership service supporting ad hoc mobile applications and propose a protocol for implementing the service. A unique property of this partitionable group membership is that messages sent between group members are guaranteed to be delivered successfully, given appropriate system assumptions. This property is preserved over time despite movement and frequent disconnections. The protocol splits and merges groups and maintains a logical connectivity graph based on a notion of safe-distance. An implementation of the protocol in Java is available for testing. The implementation is used to implement Lime 1, a middleware for mobility that supports transparent sharing of data in both wired and ad hoc wireless environments