Framework for ubiquitous discovery and access to home services

Abstract-To relieve the end user of the configuration burden that arises when new devices are installed in the (home) network, service discovery protocols (SDP) have been devised. These enable automatic discovery of the services these devices offer. Yet, the existing SDPs are not compatible or interoperable. In this paper, we propose a framework that automatically translates between the various SDPs. We also solve the problem of current SDPs that only enable discovery within a single local (sub)network. Through a remote access component, we enable sharing of the services between multiple home networks. Hence we realize sharing of services over the boundaries of SDPs and home networks. Results of performance measurements on a proof-of-concept implementation illustrate that the framework operates transparently to the various SDPs: translation has no significant impact on response times compared to native SDP services

Success in home service deployment: zero-touch or chaos?

The advent of novel terminals accompanied with advanced gateways and network devices has enormous potential when it comes to delivering innovative interactive services to broad audiences. This evolution however comes with its own dangers: the increased complexity to consistently configure terminals and network elements goes far beyond the capabilities of the average user and could even become the limiting factor for the ongoing broadband adoption. As a solution to this complexity issue, this paper addresses technologies and architectures to allow secure remote management of home devices by service and/or access providers

Smart and Secure Cross-Device Apps for the Internet of Advanced Things

Today, cross-device communication and intelligent resource sharing among smart devices is limited and inflexible: Typically devices cooperate using fixed interfaces provided by custom-built applications, which users need to install manually. This is tedious, time consuming, bears security and privacy risks, and contrasts the idea of Internet of Things (IoT) where intelligent devices operate in concert to enrich the overall user experience by sharing resources and capabilities. We present Xapp, a context-aware service mobility framework for Android. Our goal is to enable users to securely distribute the functionality of applications to mutually untrusted smart devices, e.g., to enable a smartphone to use a nearby Android TV screen as a display for a video call, let a smartphone navigation app direct an autonomous vehicle, or let it use the vehicle for an object-recognition task rather than using a cloud service with the attendant privacy risks. We built a prototype for Android as the first step towards this goal. Our system is a set of extensions to the existing Remote-OSGi service platform, an emerging industry standard which unfortunately does not secure the communications between devices. This paper describes our proposal for the required security architecture. We designed and implemented an authentication protocol suite, where trust is bootstrapped using NFC for the sake of usability. On top of this we built a fine-grained access control system so that mutually mistrustful Xapp apps can be used simultaneously in the same neighborhood and even on the same devices. Hence, with Xapp users can run an Android app across multiple devices without having to install it on each of them individually. As proof of concept we present the implementation and evaluation of a video call app