On consistency maintenance in service discovery

Communication and node failures degrade the ability of a service discovery protocol to ensure Users receive the correct service information when the service changes. We propose that service discovery protocols employ a set of recovery techniques to recover from failures and regain consistency. We use simulations to show that the type of recovery technique a protocol uses significantly impacts the performance. We benchmark the performance of our own service discovery protocol, FRODO against the performance of first generation service discovery protocols, Jini and UPnP during increasing communication and node failures. The results show that FRODO has the best overall consistency maintenance performance

A Taxonomy of Self-configuring Service Discovery Systems

We analyze the fundamental concepts and issues in service discovery. This analysis places service discovery in the context of distributed systems by describing service discovery as a third generation naming system. We also describe the essential architectures and the functionalities in service discovery. We then proceed to show how service discovery fits into a system, by characterizing operational aspects. Subsequently, we describe how existing state of the art performs service discovery, in relation to the operational aspects and functionalities, and identify areas for improvement

Agassiz, Garman, Albatross, and the Collection of Deep-sea Fishes

The first of Alexander Agassiz’ voyages on the U.S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross in 1891 yielded significant scientific results. This paper reviews the background of the voyage, including the career path that led Agassiz to the back deck of the Albatross. We also give a brief account of the life and work of Samuel Garman. Garman wrote up the ichthyological material from this Albatross voyage in a magnificent book on deep-sea fishes published in 1899. This book was exceptional in its coverage, anatomical detail, and recognition of phylogenetically important morphology

The Performance of a Second Generation Service Discovery Protocol In Response to Message Loss

We analyze the behavior of FRODO, a second generation service discovery protocol, in response to message loss in the network. Earlier protocols, like UPnP and Jini rely on underlying network layers to enhance their failure recovery. A comparison with UPnP and Jini shows that FRODO performs more efficiently in maintaining consistency, with shorter latency, not relying on lower network layers for robustness and therefore functions correctly on a simple lightweight protocol stack

Nonmonotonic Trust Management for P2P Applications

Community decisions about access control in virtual communities are non-monotonic in nature. This means that they cannot be expressed in current, monotonic trust management languages such as the family of Role Based Trust Management languages (RT). To solve this problem we propose RT-, which adds a restricted form of negation to the standard RT language, thus admitting a controlled form of non-monotonicity. The semantics of RT- is discussed and presented in terms of the well-founded semantics for Logic Programs. Finally we discuss how chain discovery can be accomplished for RT-.Comment: This paper appears in the proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Security and Trust Management (STM 2005). To appear in ENTC

Architecture-based Qualitative Risk Analysis for Availability of IT Infrastructures

An IT risk assessment must deliver the best possible quality of results in a time-effective way. Organisations are used to customise the general-purpose standard risk assessment methods in a way that can satisfy their requirements. In this paper we present the QualTD Model and method, which is meant to be employed together with standard risk assessment methods for the qualitative assessment of availability risks of IT architectures, or parts of them. The QualTD Model is based on our previous quantitative model, but geared to industrial practice since it does not require quantitative data which is often too costly to acquire. We validate the model and method in a real-world case by performing a risk assessment on the authentication and authorisation system of a large multinational company and by evaluating the results w.r.t. the goals of the stakeholders of the system. We also perform a review of the most popular standard risk assessment methods and an analysis of which one can be actually integrated with our QualTD Model

Information activity in serious leisure

Background. In the past decade, scholars of information science have started to conduct research on information behaviour in serious leisure. Presently, these studies lack common concepts and terms and empirical discoveries are not easy to assemble into theory. Aim. This conceptual and methodological paper surveys the aforementioned research area and introduces Anders Hektor’s model of information behaviour in conjunction with the serious leisure perspective as a means to systematically study information behaviour in serious leisure. Method. Three methods are employed. The first is a selective literature review and intellectual history of research into information behaviour in serious leisure. The second is a conceptual analysis of Hektor’s model that relates its key features to the serious leisure perspective. The third consists of a deductive audit of three forms of serious leisure (the liberal arts hobby, amateur musicianship, and the hobby of running), utilizing the frameworks, concepts, and terms outlined in the paper. Results. Studies of information behaviour in serious leisure have increased and deepened in the past decade, largely through ideographic case studies. Hektor’s model of information behaviour, with its locus in everyday life and precise delineation of eight information activities, can complement such research designs. A deductive audit guided by Hektor’s model illuminated information activities within the three forms of serious leisure and enabled comparative observations. Conclusions. When combined with the serious leisure perspective, Hektor’s model enables research that is comparative and more precise. However, the extent to which this model captures physical or embodied information should be further examined

Security Attributes Based Digital Rights Management

Most real-life systems delegate responsibilities to different authorities. We apply this model to a digital rights management system, to achieve flexible security. In our model a hierarchy of authorities issues certificates that are linked by cryptographic means. This linkage establishes a chain of control, identity-attribute-rights, and allows flexible rights control over content. Typical security objectives, such as identification, authentication, authorization and access control can be realised. Content keys are personalised to detect illegal super distribution. We describe a working prototype, which we develop using standard techniques, such as standard certificates, XML and Java. We present experimental results to evaluate the scalability of the system. A formal analysis demonstrates that our design is able to detect a form of illegal super distribution