OpenPING: A Reflective Middleware for the Construction of Adaptive Networked Game Applications

The emergence of distributed Virtual Reality (VR) applications that run over the Internet has presented networked game application designers with new challenges. In an environment where the public internet streams multimedia data and is constantly under pressure to deliver over widely heterogeneous user-platforms, there has been a growing need that distributed VR applications be aware of and adapt to frequent variations in their context of execution. In this paper, we argue that in contrast to research efforts targeted at improvement of scalability, persistence and responsiveness capabilities, much less attempts have been aimed at addressing the flexibility, maintainability and extensibility requirements in contemporary distributed VR platforms. We propose the use of structural reflection as an approach that not only addresses these requirements but also offers added value in the form of providing a framework for scalability, persistence and responsiveness that is itself flexible, maintainable and extensible. We also present an adaptive middleware platform implementation called OpenPING1 that supports our proposal in addressing these requirements

The Role of Structural Reflection in Distributed Virtual Reality

The emergence of collaborative virtual world applications that run over the Internet has presented Virtual Reality (VR) application designers with new challenges. In an environment where the public internet streams multimedia data and is constantly under pressure to deliver over widely heterogeneous user-platforms, there has been a growing need that distributed virtual world applications be aware of and adapt to frequent variations in their context of execution. In this paper, we argue that in contrast to research efforts targeted at improvement of scalability, persistence and responsiveness capabilities, much less attempts have been aimed at addressing the flexibility, maintainability and extensibility requirements in contemporary Distributed VR applications. We propose the use of structural reflection as an approach that not only addresses these requirements but also offers added value in the form of providing a framework for scalability, persistence and responsiveness that is itself flexible, maintainable and extensible

Interoperating with heterogeneous Mobile Services

Mobile applications are now developed upon a wide range of service development platforms, commonly referred to as middleware. However, the diversity of those available presents a problem for mobile client development. How can a single client implementation interoperate with heterogeneous service implementations

Fine Grained Component Engineering of Adaptive Overlays: Experiences and Perspectives

Recent years have seen significant research being carried out into peer-to-peer (P2P) systems. This work has focused on the styles and applications of P2P computing, from grid computation to content distribution; however, little investigation has been performed into how these systems are built. Component based engineering is an approach that has seen successful deployment in the field of middleware development; functionality is encapsulated in ‘building blocks’ that can be dynamically plugged together to form complete systems. This allows efficient, flexible and adaptable systems to be built with lower overhead and development complexity. This paper presents an investigation into the potential of using component based engineering in the design and construction of peer-to-peer overlays. It is highlighted that the quality of these properties is dictated by the component architecture used to implement the system. Three reusable decomposition architectures are designed and evaluated using Chord and Pastry case studies. These demonstrate that significant improvements can be made over traditional design approaches resulting in much more reusable, (re)configurable and extensible systems

GOSSIPKIT: A Unified Component Framework for Gossip

International audienceAlthough the principles of gossip protocols are relatively easy to grasp, their variety can make their design and evaluation highly time consuming. This problem is compounded by the lack of a unified programming framework for gossip, which means developers cannot easily reuse, compose, or adapt existing solutions to fit their needs, and have limited opportunities to share knowledge and ideas. In this paper, we consider how component frameworks, which have been widely applied to implement middleware solutions, can facilitate the development of gossip-based systems in a way that is both generic and simple. We show how such an approach can maximise code reuse, simplify the implementation of gossip protocols, and facilitate dynamic evolution and re-deployment

Tracing the distribution concern: Bridging the Gap

Distribution is often presented as an example of a crosscutting concern that is difficult to modularize. This paper presents an approach for modeling distribution using a combination of AOSD and use cases. One of the aims of the paper is to bridge the gap between the handling of crosscutting concerns during the early and later phases of the lifecycle when developing distributed applications. With our approach the distribution concern is modularized in control objects in Analysis, in design control classes in Design and in distributed components in Implementation and Deployment. Use cases are used to establish a clear traceability among the analysis, design, deployment and implementation stages. In this sense, control objects of the analysis have a direct correspondence with distributed components in the implementation and deployment models

Using a Grid-Enabled Wireless Sensor Network for Flood Management

Flooding is becoming an increasing problem. As a result there is a need to deploy more sophisticated sensor networks to detect and react to flooding. This paper outlines a demonstration that illustrates our proposed solution to this problem involving embedded wireless hardware, component based middleware and overlay networks