An Architecture for the Integration of Physical and Informational Spaces

While computer processing power, storage capacity, and bandwidth are continuing to experience exponential growth, individual human processing capabilities are not increasing significantly. Pervasive computing offers an opportunity for applications to interact with the physical environment and to provide a task-centric and mobile infrastructure for the user. However, this rich environment can also be distracting, in part because of a lack of convergence between the physical infrastructure observed by users and the information space seen by applications. In this paper we introduce AIPIS, an architecture that bridges the physical and informational realms of the human and the computer, respectively. The purpose of AIPIS is two-fold: (1) provide users with a hands-free computing environment that automates much of the drudgery associated with the use of computers; and (2) require human attention for only critical aspects of task execution that require their input. We also describe the Aura desktop, a first prototype of the AIPIS architecture.     

普适计算环境下基于中间件的上下文质量管理框架研究

随着信息技术的快速发展,分布式计算技术逐渐向普适计算技术演化,从而达到信息空间和物理空间融合的最终目标,为用户提供普适的智能化服务。为了达到这个目标,一个主要的困难就是如何有效地连续监测、才甫获与解释环境相关的上下文信息来确保精确的上下文感知性。很多研究者已先后投身于上下文感知的普适应用的研究工作中,但大多数往往直接针对原始上下文进行处理,没有考虑上下文质量(QoC)的影响。因此,提出了一种基于中间件的上下文质量管理框架,即通过上下文的质量门阂管理、重复与不一致的上下文丢弃等不同层次的控制机制,为上下文感知服务和应用用户提供有效而可靠的上下文服务。     

DaaS: Cloud-based mobile Web service discovery

The proliferation of smartphones and the recent advancement in ubiquitous wireless access have made mobile Web services more possible than ever before. However, finding relevant Web services that can match requests and fit user context remains a major concern. The challenges facing Web service discovery are further magnified by the stringent constraints of mobile devices and the inherit complexity of wireless heterogeneous networks. Cloud computing, with its flexible design and theoretically unlimited computing resources, is a viable approach to bootstrapping Web service discovery. The cloud can build bridges between mobile devices, as a convenient ubiquitous interface, and a backbone infrastructure with abundant computing resources. This paper introduces “Discovery as a service (Daas)”, a novel cloud-based discovery framework that addresses the core components of mobile Web service discovery. The DaaS framework lays the foundation of efficient mobile Web service discovery that takes into consideration user preferences and context. The experimental validation and performance evaluation demonstrate that DaaS can effectively rank relevant services according to the various user context and preferences, in addition to enhancing the precision of the discovered services. The prototype also shows that Web service clustering for discovery significantly improves the overall response time, while the cloud maintains scalability according to prespecified performance criteria.     

关于云计算的几点思考

云计算是以虚拟化技术为基础,以网络为载体提供基础架构、平台、软件等服务为形式,整合大规模可扩展的计算、存储、数据、应用等分布式计算资源进行协同工作的超级计算模式。云计算技术的出现使得人们可以直接通过网络应用获取软件和计算能力,这一新的模式将会给传统的IT产业带来一场巨大的变革,云计算正在成为一种发展趋势。本文就云计算的发展前景和存在的风险谈几点思考。     

Look, Ma, My homepage is Mobile!

Much of the ongoing research in ubiquitous computing has concentrated on providing context information, e.g. location information, to the level of services and applications. Typically, mobile clients obtain location information from their environment which is used to provide “locally optimal” services. In contrast, it may be of interest to obtain information about the current context a mobile user or device is in, from a client somewhere on the Web, i.e. to use the mobile device as an information provider for Internet clients. As an instance of such services we propose the metaphor of a “location-aware” Web homepage of mobile users providing information about, e.g. the current location a mobile user is at. Requesting this homepage can be as easy as typing a URL containing the mobile user's phone number such ashttp://mhp.net/+49123456789 in an off-the-shelf browser. The homepage is dynamically constructed as Web users access it and it can be configured in various ways that are controlled by the mobile user. We present the architecture and implementation and discuss issues around this example of “inverse” ubiquitous computing.     

IaaS云安全研究综述

目前,在新一代大规模互联网迅猛发展的背景下,产生的数据量也随之持续增长,这就导致用户的本地设备难以满足海量数据的存储和计算需求。与此同时,云计算作为一种经济高效且灵活的模式,具有易于使用、随用随付、不受时间和空间限制的优势,彻底改变了传统IT基础设施的提供和支付方式,可以有效解决无限增长的海量信息存储和计算问题。因此,在没有昂贵的存储成本和计算资源消耗的情况下,资源有限的用户可以采用云服务提供商（Cloud Service Provider,CSP）为用户提供所期望的服务。其中,基础设施即服务（Infrastructure as a Service,IaaS）作为云计算的三种服务类型之一,将虚拟化、分布式计算和网络存储等技术结合,可以在互联网上提供和租用计算基础设施资源服务（如计算、存储和网络）。故云计算依靠IaaS层提供的计算基础设施资源,使用户不再需要购买额外设备,从而大大降低使用成本,同时也为上层服务奠定基础。然而,随着云计算服务的不断发展,基于IaaS的安全问题引起人们的关注。为了系统了解IaaS的安全研究进展和现状,本文对IaaS的安全问题以及学术界和工业界的解决方案进行了详细调查。首先,本文介绍IaaS的相关理论基础并对分析不同类型的云安全威胁。然后,从学术界现有研究出发,分析IaaS提供的计算、存储和网络服务中存在的安全威胁,并调查现有的解决方案。此外,对工业界中云服务提供商的IaaS安全服务进行重点调查,包括数据安全、网络防护和其他安全服务等方面。最终,展望未来IaaS云安全在学术和工业环境中的发展趋势。     

The ECORA framework: A hybrid architecture for context-oriented pervasive computing

An infrastructure approach to support context-aware pervasive computing is advantageous for rapid prototyping of context-aware distributed applications and beneficial for unifying modelling of context and reasoning in uncertain conditions. This paper presents the ECORA framework for context-aware computing, which is designed with a focus on reasoning about context under uncertainty and addressing issues of heterogeneity, scalability, communication and usability. The framework follows an agent-oriented hybrid approach, combining centralized reasoning services with context-aware, reasoning capable mobile software agents. The use of a centralized reasoning engine provides powerful reasoning capabilities and deploying context-aware mobile agents enables agility and robustness of components in the pervasive system. The design and implementation of the framework at different levels, as well as three case studies, are presented.     

Location-based services in ubiquitous computing environments

This paper presents a framework for providing dynamically deployable services in ubiquitous computing settings. The goal of the framework is to provide people, places, and objects with computational functionalities to support and annotate them. Using RFID-based tracking systems, the framework detects the locations of physical entities, such as people or things, and deploys services bound to the entities at proper computing devices near where they are located. It enables location-based and personalized information services to be implemented as mobile agents and operated at stationary or mobile computing devices, which are at appropriate locations, even if the services do not have any location-information. This paper presents the rationale, design, implementation, and applications of our prototype infrastructure.     

运营商级云计算数据中心发展研究

通过企业数据中心的发展历程的总结分析,以及企业数据中心未来的发展趋势的研究,云计算数据中心的特质与未来数据中心的方向是完全吻合的。在传统数据中心向云计算数据中心的演进过程中,虚拟化技术在数据中心的基础设施的"云化"过程中起着至关重要的基石作用;向云计算数据中心的演进与迁移是一个渐进式的过程,除了对云计算关键技术的关注与明晰地解决主要的技术难点外,商业模式和市场是成败的关键。我国的电信运营商可以充分发挥自我优势,在云计算数据中心的产业链中起主导作用。     

CyberGuarder: A virtualization security assurance architecture for green cloud computing

As the sizes of IT infrastructure continue to grow, cloud computing is a natural extension of virtualisation technologies that enable scalable management of virtual machines over a plethora of physically connected systems. The so-called virtualisation-based cloud computing paradigm offers a practical approach to green IT/clouds, which emphasise the construction and deployment of scalable, energy-efficient network software applications (NetApp) by virtue of improved utilisation of the underlying resources. The latter is typically achieved through increased sharing of hardware and data in a multi-tenant cloud architecture/environment and, as such, accentuates the critical requirement for enhanced security services as an integrated component of the virtual infrastructure management strategy. This paper analyses the key security challenges faced by contemporary green cloud computing environments, and proposes a virtualisation security assurance architecture, CyberGuarder, which is designed to address several key security problems within the ‘green’ cloud computing context. In particular, CyberGuarder provides three different kinds of services; namely, a virtual machine security service, a virtual network security service and a policy based trust management service. Specifically, the proposed virtual machine security service incorporates a number of new techniques which include (1) a VMM-based integrity measurement approach for NetApp trusted loading, (2) a multi-granularity NetApp isolation mechanism to enable OS user isolation, and (3) a dynamic approach to virtual machine and network isolation for multiple NetApp’s based on energy-efficiency and security requirements. Secondly, a virtual network security service has been developed successfully to provide an adaptive virtual security appliance deployment in a NetApp execution environment, whereby traditional security services such as IDS and firewalls can be encapsulated as VM images and deployed over a virtual security network in accordance with the practical configuration of the virtualised infrastructure. Thirdly, a security service providing policy based trust management is proposed to facilitate access control to the resources pool and a trust federation mechanism to support/optimise task privacy and cost requirements across multiple resource pools. Preliminary studies of these services have been carried out on our iVIC platform, with promising results. As part of our ongoing research in large-scale, energy-efficient/green cloud computing, we are currently developing a virtual laboratory for our campus courses using the virtualisation infrastructure of iVIC, which incorporates the important results and experience of CyberGuarder in a practical context.     

基于SOA的云计算框架模型的研究与实现

云计算是一种能够向各种互联网应用提供硬件服务、基础架构服务、平台服务、软件服务、存储服务的系统,而SOA是一个组件模型,它将依靠各服务之间定义良好的接口和契约的应用程序联系起来。将云计算与SOA紧密地结合起来,形成一种基于SOA的云计算框架模型。实验证明,该模型简单、实用,充分体现了云计算与面向服务的架构的优势。     

Toward a business process grid for utility computing

Existing grid computing technologies take advantage of underused computing capacity to solve business problems and provide IT-level infrastructure to support business applications. A business grid's ultimate goal, however, is to apply the utility model of grid computing to business applications; that is, provide support services for charging users on a pay-per-use basis, much as a utility company charges for electricity. That way, the vendor takes the responsibility for application maintenance and upgrade. Thus, a business grid provides a virtualized infrastructure to support the transparent use and sharing of business functions on demand.     

Nomadic computing and smart spaces

Currently, most users think of their computers as associated with their desktop appliances or with a server located in a dungeon in some mysterious basement. However, many of those same users can be considered nomads, in that they carry computers and communication devices with them in their travels between office, home, airport, hotel, automobile, and so on. Access to the Internet is necessary not only from one's “home base”, but also while in transit and after reaching one's destination. A number of capabilities must be put in place to support this new paradigm of nomadicity. Among these, we can include independence of location, motion, platform, and, with widespread presence, of access to remote files, systems, and services. Essentially, one seeks to provide the illusion of connectivity even when the nomad is disconnected and to provide seamless access to Internet services wherever the nomad travels. To achieve this, not only must the infrastructure be enhanced to provide these capabilities, but applications must become nomadically enabled as well. These ideas form the essence of the major shift to nomadic computing. But nomadic computing is merely the first step of the vision foreseen by the author. The next step will take us out of the netherworld of cyberspace and into the physical world of smart spaces. Environments will come alive with embedded technology, so that no longer will we see Internet services as coming to us from the screen on a computer, but rather those services will be embedded in the environment     

Lightweight security for mobile commerce transactions

This paper describes a lightweight security mechanism for protecting electronic transactions conducted over the mobile platform. In a typical mobile computing environment, one or more of the transacting parties are based on some wireless handheld devices. Electronic transactions conducted over the mobile platform are gaining popularity and it is widely accepted that mobile computing is a natural extension of the wired Internet computing world. However, security over the mobile platform is more critical due to the open nature of wireless networks. Furthermore, security is more difficult to implement on the mobile platform because of the resource limitation of mobile handheld devices. Therefore, security mechanisms for protecting traditional computer communications need to be revisited so as to ensure that electronic transactions involving mobile devices can be secured and implemented in an effective manner. This research is part of our effort in designing security infrastructure for electronic commerce systems, which extend from the wired to the wireless Internet. A lightweight mechanism was designed to meet the security needs in face of the resource constraints. The proposed mechanism is proven to be practical in real deployment environment.     

面向普适计算环境的嵌入式系统研究

服务提供与用户界面自适应问题是普适计算中的重要研究课题。嵌入式系统提供的服务对普适计算的服务起到了重要的支持作用;普适计算任务要获取用户的服务也需要自适应的用户界面来显示服务项目,嵌入式系统的自适应界面是合适的选择。但是,传统的嵌入式系统服务软件不能很好地实现上述目标。针对传统嵌入式系统服务模型的不足,首先总结了面向普适计算的嵌入式系统硬件结构,并将这种结构命名为计算元。随后提出了一种新的嵌入式系统服务提供模型,统一了用户上下文交互的标准信息格式。最后研究了该服务模型的实现。     

云计算研究

云计算模式是在基础设施即服务（IaaS）、平台即服务（PaaS）、软件即服务（SaaS）、分布式计算、并行计算和网格计算等概念演进并产生的结果。云计算模式是一种全新的计算应用模式,将会成为人们获取服务的主导方式。本文首先介绍云计算在业界中的概念,接着分析云计算和相关计算,最后关于云计算发展的前景进行展望。     

Diagnosing diabetes using neural networks on small mobile devices

Pervasive computing is often mentioned in the context of improving healthcare. This paper presents a novel approach for diagnosing diabetes using neural networks and pervasive healthcare computing technologies. The recent developments in small mobile devices and wireless communications provide a strong motivation to develop new software techniques and mobile services for pervasive healthcare computing. A distributed end-to-end pervasive healthcare system utilizing neural network computations for diagnosing illnesses was developed. This work presents the initial results for a simple client (patient’s PDA) and server (powerful desktop PC) two-tier pervasive healthcare architecture. The computations of neural network operations on both client and server sides and wireless network communications between them are optimized for real time use of pervasive healthcare services.     

Understanding and predicting students' intention to use mobile cloud storage services

The challenges of mobile devices such as limited bandwidth, computing, and storage have led manufacturers and service providers to develop new value-added mobile services. To address these limitations, mobile cloud computing, which offers on-demand services including platforms, infrastructure, and software have been developed. This study attempts to build a significantly improved research framework based on the Technology Acceptance Model in order to identify factors that affect students' attitudes toward and intentions in using mobile cloud storage services. A structural equation model was used to assess the proposed model based on the data collected from 262 undergraduate students. Results show that perceived usefulness, subjective norm, and trust have a significantly positive effect on the attitude, which in turn is a significant predictor of behavioral intentions. The research model, which explains 82% of the variance in attitudes toward using mobile cloud storage services has a strong predictive power. The findings have both theoretical and practical implications for academics, managers, and educational institutions.