Towards Real-Time Middleware for Applications of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Applications of inter-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communication that make use of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) will often require reliable communication that provides guaranteed real-time message propagation. This paper describes an event-based middleware, called RT-STEAM, designed to meet these requirements. Unlike other event systems, RT-STEAM does not rely on a centralized event broker or look-up service while still supporting event channels providing hard real-time event delivery. RT-STEAM event filtering can be based on subject, content and/or proximity. Proximity filters define geographical areas within which events are delivered. To guarantee real-time communication, we exploit proximity-based event propagation to guarantee real-time constraints within the defined proximities only. The proximity within which real-time guarantees are available is adapted to maintain time bounds while allowing changes to membership and topology as is typical of VANETs. This Space-Elastic Model of real-time communication is the first to directly address adaptation in the space domain to guarantee real-time constraints.

René Meier, Barbara Hughes, Raymond Cunningham, Vinny Cahill

Adaptive Context Management Using a Component-Based Approach

Abstract

Context-awareness has become a necessity for adaptable intelligent applications and services. It is crucial for ubiquitous and pervasive computing because the context of a user or device serves as the source of information to adapt services. In this paper, we propose a modular context management system that is able to collect, transform, reason on and use context information to adapt services. By employing a component-based approach, we enable our infrastructure not only to support context-aware adaptation of services, but also to support adaptation of the context management system itself at deployment time and at runtime. This self-adaptation is based upon the service requirements and the current context of the device, such as the current resource usage or other devices in the neighborhood, resulting in an adaptive context management system for improved quality of service.

Davy Preuveneers, Yolande Berbers

Customised Billing for Location-Based Services

Abstract

As the new communications era aims to provide mobile users with advanced and customised services, it becomes apparent that the requirement for intelligent charging and customised billing of service access emerges bravely. In that scope, the enrichment of mobile services with attributes related to user profiles, context, location, presence and other elements providing customization, affects also the charging process. In particular, the charging and billing for service access have to be more flexible and personalised, so that especial, customised billing for new location-based services and applications is enabled. Hence, charging information related to the user profile and preferences as well as the user location will also have to be encountered at the billing process. This paper presents an integrated architecture, which allows flexible charging and customised billing for the usage of location-based services.

Maria Koutsopoulou, Spyridon Panagiotakis, Athanassia Alonistioti, Alexandros Kaloxylos

Interoperability Architectures

Loosely-Coupled Integration of CSCW Systems

Abstract

As collaboration activities usually involve several people with different group tasks and needs, they are rarely supported by a single CSCW technology. Then different types of collaborative applications are usually applied in order to support group work. But in spite of being used to accomplish a common collaboration task, these applications are executed independently without getting any advantage of each other. The integration of such applications would allow them to dynamically interoperate, combining their different functionalities in a controlled way. In order to achieve integration, we propose LEICA, a loosely-coupled integration environment which allows collaborative applications to interact without loosing their autonomy. LEICA relies on Web services technology, event notification system, and collaboration policies for controlling the interactions between integrated applications.

Roberta L. Gomes, Guillermo J. Hoyos Rivera, Jean Pierre Courtiat

Interoperability and eServices

Abstract

eServices are the building blocks for loosely-coupled, distributed applications based on the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles. One of the major benefits they offer is interoperability both between components of service oriented systems and between different systems. Still, the variety and diversity of implementations and interpretations of SOA and the vast amount of emerging standards hinder interoperability. This paper examines interoperability requirements and related issues in the three major eServices categories: Web, Grid and P2P services. Our aim is to provide the basis for a roadmap towards improving interoperability of eServices.

Aphrodite Tsalgatidou, Eleni Koutrouli

Model-Driven Self-management of Legacy Applications

Abstract

Increasing complexity of todays applications and services leads to the emerging trend of self-managing systems. Legacy applications often offer interfaces for manual management and very rarely do provideself-management features. Therefore it is very important to reuse existing management interfaces for achieving self-manageability.

This paper presents our model-driven self-management approach of legacy applications. We introduce a framework for model-driven service level management which transforms abstract SLAs defined in UML into concrete SLA descriptions and deploys them for management. These SLAsare used to define the goals for our self-management agent which is responsible for providing feedback control. Its management knowledge is transformed from UML models using also a model-driven approach.

Markus Debusmann, Markus Schmid, Reinhold Kroeger

Methodological Aspects

Model-Driven Methodology for Building QoS-Optimised Web Service Compositions

Abstract

As the number of available Web services increases there is a growing demand to realise complex business processes by combining and reusing available basic Web services. For each of the needed basic Web services there may be many candidate services available from different vendors and with different Quality of Service (QoS) values.This paper proposes a model-driven methodology for building new Web service compositions that are QoS-optimised. We investigate if UML is suitable for modelling the QoS aspects and we explain how transformations can be used to automate most parts of the methodology. Some of these transformations are already implemented in previous work.

As part of the methodology we present a control flow pattern approach that optimises the QoS values of the composition given user-defined requirements and preferences. The pattern approach is compared towards the local and global approaches identified by other authors. Experiments are carried out within our simulation tool that simulates the selection of services and aggregation of QoS in a given composition.The test results are used to identify recommendations of when to use the different approaches based on measurements of computation time of the optimisation component and achieved QoS values for the new composition. The methodology is explained by relating it to a gas dispersion emergency case.

Roy Grønmo, Michael C. Jaeger

How to Implement Software Connectors? A Reusable, Abstract and Adaptable Connector

Abstract

In recent software developments, applications are made up of a collection of reusable software entities (components) and mechanisms that permit their interaction (connectors). These latter mechanisms have many forms. On the one hand, industrial approaches use simple connectors that are mainly point-to-point connections.On the other hand, academic approaches, like Architecture Description Languages (ADL), recognize complex connectors as first class design entities.However, these concepts are restricted to the architectural level since they have almost no implementation. The current application developments use simple connectors, and high level specifications are under exploited.

In this article, we propose a means to fill the gap between connector specification and implementation. For a better reuse of design effort, and to avoid using only simple connectors when realizing applications, we propose to define connectors as complex communication and coordination abstractions and to implement them as a family of generators. We illustrate the development and use of such generators through a full example.

Selma Matougui, Antoine Beugnard

Designing Self-adaptive Multimedia Applications Through Hierarchical Reconfiguration

Abstract

Distributed multimedia applications are very sensitive to resource variations. An attractive way for dealing with dynamic resource variations consists in making applications adaptive, and even self-adaptive. The objective is to grant applications the ability to observe themselves and their environment, to detect significant changes and to adjust their behavior accordingly. This issue has been the subject of several works; however the proposed solutions lack flexibility and a high-level support that eases the development of adaptive applications. This paper presents PLASMA, a component-based framework for building multimedia applications. PLASMA relies on a hierarchical composition and reconfiguration model which provides the expected support. The experimental evaluation shows that adaptation can be achieved with a very low overhead, while significantly improving QoS of multimedia applications as well as resource usage on mobile equipments.

Oussama Layaida, Daniel Hagimont

Transformation Composition Modelling Framework

Abstract

When applying transformation technologies in an enterprise, there will be a need for supporting compositions of different kinds of transformations to support a development process. An example is a chain of transformations that supports a process of going from requirements to use cases, from use cases to a PIM architecture model, further to a platform specific model and finally implementation code. Some transformation steps may also involve human intervention, e.g. in a refinement of the PSM model, or a detailing of the use case model. This work in progress paper investigates how the atomic transformation viewpoint can be enhanced with support for transformation compositions, to support model driven enterprise process needs. This is done by introducing a modelling framework for composed transformations, based on a hierarchy of transformation types, some of which represent simple atomic transformations, others that represent complex transformations.

Jon Oldevik

Service Discovery

Proximity-Based Service Discovery in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Existing approaches to service discovery have been developed primarily for environments with a fixed network backbone and typically rely on centralized components being accessible to potential service clients at any given time. The characteristic lack of a designated service infrastructure in combination with the highly dynamic nature of the underlying network topology renders such discovery mechanisms unsuitable for mobile ad hoc environments. This paper presents an approach to the discovery of ad hoc services that exploits the fact that the relevance of such services is often limited to specific geographical scopes. Service providers define the areas (proximities) in which their services are available. Clients register interest in specific services and are subsequently informed whenever they enter a proximity within which these services are available. Since ad hoc services can be stationary or may be moving with the location of their mobile providers our approach supports discovery of services with fixed locations as well as of those that migrate with their providers. Our approach has been implemented as a push-based proximity discovery service and its evaluation demonstrates that it is well suited for highly dynamic networks as it maintains neither routes nor overlay network topologies.

René Meier, Vinny Cahill, Andronikos Nedos, Siobhán Clarke

Enriching UDDI Information Model with an Integrated Service Profile

Abstract

Service discovery is one key aspect in the enabling technologies for service-oriented systems including Web Services. Growing attention has been paid to the content of business and service descriptions to allow services to be discovered more flexibly and accurately. This paper presents an information model called an integrated service profile that covers aspects of Web Services, i.e. attribute-based profile and specification-based profiles. Attribute-based profile contains attributes that are described more easily with some values, while specification-based profiles represent attributes whose values are complex and then should be described as specifications. The specifications could describe Web Services in terms of their semantic structure, behaviour and rules, and composition. The paper proposes to represent these specifications by an ontology language, and hence they can be used further to discover Web Services semantically.

Natenapa Sriharee, Twittie Senivongse

Configurable Communication

Building a Configurable Publish/Subscribe Notification Service

Abstract

The convergence of technologies and information-driven applications require a middleware that supports data streams. This middleware needs to interpret, aggregate, filter and analyze streams of messages usually in a distributed environment. Publish/Subscribe middleware basically deals with some of these issues, but it is typically monolithic and includes only a subset of features.A problem arises when users want to find a middleware that completely fulfills their application requirements. Based on our experience, we propose a framework that allows the configuration/adaptation of a Pub/Sub solution based on a reusable and extensible set of components.

C. Fiorentino, M. Cilia, L. Fiege, A. Buchmann

Protocol Reconfiguration Using Component-Based Design

Abstract

Previous modular protocol design and implementation allow a flexible configuration and reconfiguration of protocol layers or full protocol stacks. However, in our days, software engineering technologies introduce new methods for designing and specifying modular software. Such a technology is the component-based software technology. Using those techniques, a software system could be modular. This paper proposed a reconfigurable protocol design and specification approach as well as a protocol reconfiguration management/runtime model based on protocol components that represent distinct protocol functions, which in previous works have been designed and specified as modules. The following content could be considered as a suggestion for a UML profile for protocol components and protocol reconfiguration.

Fotis Foukalas, Yiorgos Ntarladimas, Aristotelis Glentis, Zachos Boufidis

A Secure and Efficient Communication Resume Protocol for Secure Wireless Networks

Abstract

There are important performance issues in secure wireless networks, such as mobility, power, bandwidth, and bit error rate (BER), that must be considered when designing a communication resume protocol. The efficiency of a secure session resume for a fast resume of secure communication is a key point in secure connection development. In this paper, a fast secure communication resume protocol using the initialization vector (IV) count for a secure wireless network is presented and evaluated against the efficiency of conventional resume protocols. Our proposed secure session resume protocol is found to achieve better performance, in terms of transmission traffic, consumed time, and BER, than conventional resume protocols with the same security capabilities.

Kihong Kim, Jinkeun Hong, Jongin Lim

Interoperability Architectures II

An Architecture for Collaborative Scenarios Applying a Common BPMN-Repository

Abstract

Collaborative business scenarios require a flexible integration of enterprises. To manage inter-organizational business processes, existing concepts for business process management (BPM) need to be adopted and extended. This paper presents a conceptual architecture for cross-enterprise processes’ planning, implementation, and controlling. Core component of the architecture is a distributed repository managing all required data and information, which especially obtains a process-oriented view on collaboration networks. Cross-organizational processes need close coordination among networking partners. This is achieved through the integration of business process models. Thus we further propose a procedure model of an XML-based model transformation, which reduces complexity of the modeling-task and enables model integration on a conceptual level.

Thomas Theling, Jörg Zwicker, Peter Loos, Dominik Vanderhaeghen

A Flexible and Modular Framework for Implementing Infrastructures for Global Computing

Abstract

We present a Java software framework for building infrastructures to support the development of applications for systems where mobility and network awareness are key issues. The framework is particularly useful to develop run-time support for languages oriented towards global computing. It enables platform designers to customize communication protocols and network architectures and guarantees transparency of name management and code mobility in distributed environments. The key features are illustrated by means of a couple of simple case studies.

Lorenzo Bettini, Rocco De Nicola, Daniele Falassi, Marc Lacoste, Michele Loreti

An Architecture for Implementing Application Interoperation with Heterogeneous Systems

Abstract

We are concerned with the issues faced by software developers with a certain family of distributed applications; those that connect to and interoperate with a heterogeneous infrastructure, i.e., a large heterogeneous collection of external systems (databases, embedded devices, network equipment, internet servers etc.) using different communication protocols. This product family includes applications such as e-commerce systems, network management applications and Grid-based collaborations. For such applications, implementing the interoperation logic is both challenging and expensive. We discuss the major concerns that contribute to the problem, such as transaction support, security and management, as well as integration with workflow or component frameworks. We propose an architecture and related development methodology, based on generative programming, to reduce implementation complexity, allow for rapid application development, ease deployment and manageability.

George Hatzisymeon, Nikos Houssos, Dimitris Andreadis, Vasilis Samoladas

Performance and Optimization

Optimizing the Access to Read-Only Data in Grid Computing

Abstract

A fundamental problem of grid computing is the communication over head. One reason of this overhead is the access to remotely stored data. Caching read-only data is a possible alleviation of the problem. In case of grid computing caching can be optimized by using allocation schemes considering the contents of the caches. Possible ways to achieve such an allocation in a grid are the topic of this paper. The paper proposes to use allocation schemes preferring resources with the required data in their caches. In doing so the hit rate of the caches will be increased and as a consequence the average response time of the jobs and the network load will be reduced. Two new possible allocation approaches are discussed and com pared with classical allocation schemes. The performance and the costs of the schemes (when applied to large grids) are evaluated using a simulation environment.

Alek Opitz, Hartmut Koenig

Using Data Item Relationships to Adaptively Select Data for Synchronization

Abstract

Though synchronization of email and PIM data to mobile devices has been a major practical concern for a long time, there has been relatively little advance in making synchronization work adaptively. We examine in this article the possibility to adapt synchronization to bandwidth and resource constraints by only synchronizing the items that are currently relevant to the user, and present initial results suggesting that item relationships are helpful for accomplishing this task.

Oskari Koskimies

A Client/Intercept Based System for Optimizing Wireless Access to Web Services

Abstract

In this paper we discuss issues related to the introduction of the Web Services in the wireless/mobile domain. The use of Web Services is gradually expanding into the mobile internet area where the population of users is rapidly increasing. Web Services offer standardized ways of creating, publishing, searching and invoking services and provide a very important platform for the development of mobile e-commerce. We identify problems related to the use of the verbose protocols of Web Services (i.e., SOAP/HTTP) over the “expensive” wireless medium. Our architecture assumes the existence of WS-aware software (either client or provider) in the wireless device. We try to optimize the HTTP/SOAP stream exchanged over the wireless medium. Our effort is largely based on the design of the IBM WebExpress platform. Our measurements indicate substantial benefits for the users.

Irene Kilanioti, Georgia Sotiropoulou, Stathes Hadjiefthymiades

Springer Professional

Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems

5th IFIP WG 6.1 International Conference, DAIS 2005, Athens, Greece, June 15-17, 2005. Proceedings

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Towards Real-Time Middleware for Applications of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Towards Real-Time Middleware for Applications of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Adaptive Context Management Using a Component-Based Approach

Customised Billing for Location-Based Services

Interoperability Architectures

Loosely-Coupled Integration of CSCW Systems

Interoperability and eServices

Model-Driven Self-management of Legacy Applications

Methodological Aspects

Model-Driven Methodology for Building QoS-Optimised Web Service Compositions

How to Implement Software Connectors? A Reusable, Abstract and Adaptable Connector

Designing Self-adaptive Multimedia Applications Through Hierarchical Reconfiguration

Transformation Composition Modelling Framework

Service Discovery

Proximity-Based Service Discovery in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Enriching UDDI Information Model with an Integrated Service Profile

Configurable Communication

Building a Configurable Publish/Subscribe Notification Service

Protocol Reconfiguration Using Component-Based Design

A Secure and Efficient Communication Resume Protocol for Secure Wireless Networks

Interoperability Architectures II

An Architecture for Collaborative Scenarios Applying a Common BPMN-Repository

A Flexible and Modular Framework for Implementing Infrastructures for Global Computing

An Architecture for Implementing Application Interoperation with Heterogeneous Systems

Performance and Optimization

Optimizing the Access to Read-Only Data in Grid Computing

Using Data Item Relationships to Adaptively Select Data for Synchronization

A Client/Intercept Based System for Optimizing Wireless Access to Web Services

Backmatter

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