A DVB-MHP web browser to pursue convergence between Digital Terrestrial Television and Internet

In the last decade with the growth of Interactive Digital Television (IDTV) we have seen the end of passive television. An example of this trend is Internet access through television by means of the last generation Set Top Boxes (STBs). The chance to enjoy web contents through digital television Set Top Boxes, delivering a satisfying browsing experience across this platform, could provide the opportunity to promote social inclusion and bridging the “digital divide”. In this paper we present WebClimb, a web browser that would pursue an effective integration of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and Internet in the DVB-MHP platform. WebClimb is a Java-based web browser that enables users to browse the web by interacting with an easy to use Graphical User Interface (GUI), driven by a common TV remote control without asking for reformatting such a content on the server side. In addition to this, the main requirement has been to design and develop an MHP browser application to be broadcast through a TV channel and not embedded in a specific device, though it could be too. Experimental results and a comparison with other possible solutions are provided.     

Security benchmarks of OSGi platforms: toward Hardened OSGi

OSGi platforms are extensible component platforms, i.e. they support the dynamic and transparent installation of components that are provided by third party providers at runtime. This feature makes systems built using OSGi extensible and adaptable, but opens a dangerous attack vector that has not been considered as such until recently. Performing a security benchmark of the OSGi platform is therefore necessary to gather knowledge related to the weaknesses it introduces as well as to propose enhancements. A suitable Vulnerability Pattern is defined. The attacks that can be performed through malicious OSGi components are identified. Quantitative analysis is then performed so as to characterize the origin of the vulnerabilities and the target and consequences of the attacks. The assessment of the security status of the various implementations of the OSGi platform and of existing security mechanisms is done through a metric we introduce, the Protection rate (PR). Based on these benchmarks, OSGi‐specific security enhancements are identified and evaluated. First recommendations are given. Then evaluation is performed through the PR metric and performance analysis. Lastly, further requirements for building secure OSGi platforms are identified. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A software architecture for virtualized educational multimedia games in IPTV environments

T‐Learning makes it possible to deliver educational content to home TVs. TV operators, which manage huge populations of devices such as set‐top‐boxes (STBs) in user homes, are considering t‐Learning as an interesting option for expanding the service they offer. However, typical STB hardware configurations are limited in terms of satisfying operator needs and do not easily support all types of applications or content. In this work, we consider graphic < e‐Adventure > educational games, which are not directly executable on typical STBs. To cover this gap and guarantee an enjoyable user experience, we present an architecture based on a combination of streaming and remote desktop protocols that relies on virtualized servers deployed in a cloud computing infrastructure. It features an original image‐encoding signalling mechanism that identifies multimedia content in educational games and permits seamless protocol switching at the client side. This architecture is a complete technological solution to virtualize heavy educational games and execute them smoothly on STB light clients over Internet Protocol Television networks. We present performance results that show that our proposal is an efficient scalable solution to deliver t‐Learning to home environments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于DVB的数字媒体的交互性研究

数字媒体由于其特有的交互性近年来成为研究热点，基于数字媒体的中间件研究更是其交互性研究的关键所在。从中间件以及基于中间件的应用开发这一核心技术入手，报告了中间件技术和多媒体家庭平台（MHP）发展的现状，系统讨论了基于DVB的数字电视的交互模型和中间件的架构，详细阐述了MHP标准各层次的技术内容，举例分析了Alticast公司的中间件产品架构，最后，给出了一种数字电视交互应用的解决方案。     

家庭网络环境下基于OSGi的灵活授权

在家庭网络环境下,OSGi平台在控制不同用户进行访问时,授权就显得非常重要。OSGi平台虽然支持基于角色的访问控制(RBAC),但并不支持RBAC模型中的所有功能。本文针对OSGi平台动态部署不足的问题,通过增加了相对角色的概念并使用委托模型激活了其访问控制,提出了一个多样化的访问控制机制,扩展了OSGi平台现有的授权机制。     

Cloud computing paradigms for pleasingly parallel biomedical applications

Cloud computing offers exciting new approaches for scientific computing that leverage major commercial players’ hardware and software investments in large‐scale data centers. Loosely coupled problems are very important in many scientific fields, and with the ongoing move towards data‐intensive computing, they are on the rise. There exist several different approaches to leveraging clouds and cloud‐oriented data processing frameworks to perform pleasingly parallel (also called embarrassingly parallel) computations. In this paper, we present three pleasingly parallel biomedical applications: (i) assembly of genome fragments; (ii) sequence alignment and similarity search; and (iii) dimension reduction in the analysis of chemical structures, which are implemented utilizing a cloud infrastructure service‐based utility computing models of Amazon Web Services ( http://Amazon.com Inc., Seattle, WA, USA) and Microsoft Windows Azure (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA) as well as utilizing MapReduce‐based data processing frameworks Apache Hadoop (Apache Software Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, USA) and Microsoft DryadLINQ. We review and compare each of these frameworks, performing a comparative study among them based on performance, cost, and usability. High latency, eventually consistent cloud infrastructure service‐based frameworks that rely on off‐the‐node cloud storage were able to exhibit performance efficiencies and scalability comparable to the MapReduce‐based frameworks with local disk‐based storage for the applications considered. In this paper, we also analyze variations in cost among the different platform choices (e.g., Elastic Compute Cloud instance types), highlighting the importance of selecting an appropriate platform based on the nature of the computation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于OSGi的面向服务软件体系结构设计

为了实现企业级应用的基础架构、开发方式和部署方式的统一,文中研究了O SGi服务组件模型。O SGi提供了一种面向服务的组件开发框架,具有高度模块化和动态化特点。根据SOA架构思想和OSGi框架特性,设计一种基于OSGi规范的面向服务的软件体系结构,开发了统一服务架构平台,并通过组件化、图形化为设计、开发及调试等过程提供全生命周期的支持,实现了企业应用即插即用的模块化管理,能够有效提高软件模块复用能力和复用程度。     

Enabling smart spaces with OSGi

Today's pervasive computing spaces are developed primarily with proprietary technology and seem to lack a long-term vision of evolution and interoperation. The future pervasive computing environment will comprise a wide variety of devices and services from different manufacturers and developers. We must therefore achieve platform and vendor independence as well as architecture openness before pervasive computing spaces become common places. The Open Services Gateway Initiative attempts to meet these requirements by providing a managed, extensible framework to connect various devices in a local network such as in a home, office, or automobile. By defining a standard execution environment and service interfaces, OSGi promotes the dynamic discovery and collaboration of devices and services from different sources. Moreover, the framework is designed to ensure smooth space evolution over time and to support connectivity to the outside world, allowing remote control, diagnosis, and management. We present the OSGi technology and examine several OSGi development toolkits and products. We also share our experience in using OSGi to build an open, assistive environment that supports independent living for elders.     

Enhancing OSGi with real‐time Java support

OSGi was designed with embedded systems in mind, its current support is insufficient for coping with one main characteristic of many embedded systems: real‐time performance. This article analyzes different key issues in providing OSGi with real‐time Java performance covering motivational issues, and different integration ways and challenges stemming from the integration. It also contributes a general framework for introducing real‐time performance in OSGi, which is called the real‐time for OSGi framework. The framework uses real‐time Java virtual machines and the real‐time specification for Java. The adoption of this framework allows cyber‐physical systems to experience real‐time Java performance in their applications. The framework introduces several integration levels for OSGi and real‐time specification for Java, and specific real‐time OSGi services. An empirical implementation was carried out using standard software, which was extended with the new defined services. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Android/OSGi-based vehicular network management system

With the enormous market potential of the telematics industry and the rapid development of information technology, automotive telematics has attracted considerable attention for mobile computing and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs). However, as a result of varied platform standards, not all telematics services can be used in telematics terminals. The main issues are that most telematics technologies depend on vertical, proprietary, and closed Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) platforms. These platforms form islands of non-interoperable technology and prevent third-party service providers from creating valuable services. This study integrates the Open Gateway Service Initiative Vehicle Expert Group (OSGi/VEG) into an Android platform to generate a vehicular Android/OSGi platform that has the advantages of both original platforms. These features include remote management, rich class-sharing, proprietary vehicular applications, security policies, easy management of Application Programming Interface (APIs), and an open environment. This study also integrates a cloud computing mechanism into the Android/OSGi platform, allowing service providers to upload their telematics bundles onto storage clouds using a provisioning server. A management agent in the Android/OSGi platform can simultaneously update its application service modules using remote storage clouds and use visual intelligence to continually change the distinguishing features of applications based on context-awareness without user intervention. To assess the feasibility of the proposed Android/OSGi platform, this study presents a vehicular testbed to determine the functionalities of different telematics applications. Android/OSGi platform applications require less memory and system resources than those on the original Android platform when performing complicated operations. Additionally, the Android/OSGi platform launches telematics services more quickly than the original Android platform. The proposed platform overcomes the problem of frequent non-responsive exceptions in the original Android platform.     

Distributed OSGi built over message‐oriented middleware

This paper describes key aspects of remote service invocation in federations of OSGi containers. It refers to the OSGi Remote Service Admin specification and describes its efficient implementation over message‐oriented middleware. Scalability problems of several different approaches to implementation are identified, and a solution in a form of innovative Remote Service Admin model extension is proposed. The extension, named On‐demand Remote Service Admin, is analyzed and validated in the context of a motivating scenario. Validation includes performance and scalability evaluation, which confirms that all assumed requirements have been satisfied by the constructed prototype. Finally, the presented research is compared with related works. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Frameworks compiled from declarations: a language‐independent approach

Programming frameworks are an accepted fixture in the object‐oriented world, motivated by the need for code reuse, developer guidance and restriction. A new trend is emerging where frameworks require domain experts to provide declarations using a domain‐specific language, influencing the structure and behaviour of the resulting application. These mechanisms address concerns such as user privacy. Although many popular open platforms such as Android are based on declaration‐driven frameworks, current implementations provide ad hoc and narrow solutions to concerns raised by their openness to non‐certified developers. Most widely used frameworks fail to address serious privacy leaks and provide the user with little insight into application behaviour. To address these shortcomings, we show that declaration‐driven frameworks can limit privacy leaks, as well as guide developers, independently from the underlying programming paradigm. To do so, we identify concepts that underlie declaration‐driven frameworks and apply them systematically to an object‐oriented language, Java and a dynamic functional language, Racket. The resulting programming framework generators are used to develop a prototype mobile application, illustrating how we mitigate a common class of privacy leaks. Finally, we explore the possible design choices and propose development principles for developing domain‐specific language compilers to produce frameworks, applicable across a spectrum of programming paradigms. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhancing Residential Gateways: A Semantic OSGi Platform

The OSGi (open service gateway initiative) service platform specification is the most widely adopted technology for building a control system for the networked home. Three main features contribute to its success. First, it supports various well-known protocols, simplifying communication among home devices. In addition, it defines a cooperative model for applications to dynamically discover and use services provided by others. Finally, it allows flexible remote management of these applications and the services they provide. So, an OSGi solution supports decentralization, diversification, and ubiquity not only in smart homes but in pervasive environments generally.     

基于OSGi的两层服务模型*

ROSG采用生产者—消费者模式调用远程服务的ROSGi,不仅会增加每个系统OSGi的工作负载,同时对网络资源的消耗也很大,更无法对远程服务进行统一的管理。基于OSGi的两层服务模型正是针对ROSGi的这些缺点,从一种新的视角来看待分布式环境中的OSGi平台,将每一个独立的OSGi平台视为一个能够提供远程服务并可能要获取其他远程服务的构件,使用面向服务的构件模型的方式来解决分布式环境中远程服务的发布和获取的问题。提出了基于OSGi的两层服务模型,并详细介绍了其工作原理、流程及相关问题,同时总结了该模型     

基于OSGi家庭网关和Web Service技术的智能家庭系统

基于开放服务网关规范（OSGi）的家庭网关技术可以向用户提供各种具体的服务，如智能家居管理、远程监控等，通过Web Service技术则可以实现让任何应用系统在任何地方动态访问各种应用服务的功能。目前的智能家庭解决方案大都基于家庭网关技术，没有考虑到将Web Service技术引入其中。提出了一种将OSGi家庭网关技术和Web Service技术相结合的智能家庭系统的设计和实现方案，充分利用两种技术的优势。在对系统各功能模块进行详细设计的基础上，给出了在PDA上调用基于OSGi家庭网关的Web服务来监控家中各电器状态的实现结果。     

基于OSGI家庭网关的多媒体系统设计

随着家庭网络技术和多媒体技术的飞速发展,如何实现数字家庭中多媒体服务智能化和人性化已成为当今研究的热点。本文介绍一种基于OSGI家庭网关和UPNP AV架构扩展的媒体共享系统设计,实现家庭网络中多媒体设备的互操作,并且可以通过家庭网关上的虚拟服务器访问外部多媒体设备,同时为多媒体内容提供者提供一个强大的工具,使为用户提供多媒体服务更加智能化。多媒体提供者无需增加额外的设备和配置,不需要准备另外一个协议,使用原来的媒体传输协议就可以连接UPNP AV框架。本系统的服务器框架提供远程I/O服务让用户可以通过手持设备远程控制和访问系统中的多媒体资源。