On Composite Web Services Provisioning in an Environment of Fixed and Mobile Computing Resources

We present a framework for Web services provisioning in a hybrid environment of fixed and mobile computing resources. Several obstacles still hinder the seamless provisioning of Web services in mobile environments. Examples of such obstacles are: throughput and connectivity of wireless networks, limited computing resources of mobile devices, and risks of communication channel disconnections. In the proposed framework, software agents represent users, providers of services, and providers of resources. The business logic of composite services is expressed as a process model using statecharts formalism. Among other things, the use of agents provides an infrastructure that has the ability to handle disconnections during service preparation for execution. The framework also integrates a service execution planning approach to optimally select computing resources (fixed or mobile) on top of which services will be executed.     

Exploiting skewed access and energy-efficient algorithm to improve the performance of wireless data broadcasting

As wireless networks become an integral component of the current communication infrastructure, energy efficiency is a crucial design consideration because of the limited battery life of mobile terminals. Data broadcast is an effective data dissemination method in mobile environments. The current air indexing schemes for data broadcast focused on energy efficiency (reducing tuning time) only, and current broadcast scheduling schemes reduce access latency through nonflat data broadcast to improve only responsiveness. Few studies have addressed energy efficiency and responsiveness issues concurrently. This study proposes a fast data access scheme that concurrently supports the energy saving protocol, which constructs broadcast channels according to the access frequency of each type of message to improve energy efficiency in mobile devices. The windmill scheduling algorithm that is presented in this paper was used to organize all types of messages in the broadcast channel in the most symmetrical distribution, to reduce tuning and access time. The performance of the proposed mechanism was analyzed, and the efficiency improvement over existing methods was demonstrated numerically. Results indicate that the proposed mechanism is capable of improving both tuning and access time because of the presence of skewness in the access distribution among disseminated messages.     

无线Internet的业务质量及其改进

在移动网络中,移动用户对Internet的访问,具有与通常的外部Internet网络不同的特点。移动用户发出的对信息内容的请求(例如询问前方交通情况和路线),以及无线Internet信息提供商主动向移动用户发出的信息(例如移动用户附近的商品信息广告),与移动用户的位置、移动状态(方向、速度)和个人情况(userprofile)等有关。因此,要建立恰当的无线Internet流量模型和实现QoS(业务质量)控制,需要考虑用户的移动特性和在不同移动状态下访问Internet的概率分布。该文将建立一个新的定量分析模型,用半马尔可夫过程和一般的状态空间来描述移动用户的行为;并基于该移动模型,建立相应的移动用户对信息内容的访问模型、描述移动用户请求的到达过程;进而得到无线Internet业务质量参数的估计,即无线Internet对移动用户请求的平均响应时间、对无线侧和有线侧传输带宽的需求等;利用这些结果,可以实现无线资源的动态分配和允入控制。该文还将分析无线代理网关的性能、缓存容量需求,并给出改善平均响应时间的可行方案。最后用计算机模拟对提出的理论分析进行验证。     

Exploiting data mining techniques for broadcasting data in mobile computing environments

Mobile computers can be equipped with wireless communication devices that enable users to access data services from any location. In wireless communication, the server-to-client (downlink) communication bandwidth is much higher than the client-to-server (uplink) communication bandwidth. This asymmetry makes the dissemination of data to client machines a desirable approach. However, dissemination of data by broadcasting may induce high access latency in case the number of broadcast data items is large. We propose two methods aiming to reduce client access latency of broadcast data. Our methods are based on analyzing the broadcast history (i.e., the chronological sequence of items that have been requested by clients) using data mining techniques. With the first method, the data items in the broadcast disk are organized in such a way that the items requested subsequently are placed close to each other. The second method focuses on improving the cache hit ratio to be able to decrease the access latency. It enables clients to prefetch the data from the broadcast disk based on the rules extracted from previous data request patterns. The proposed methods are implemented on a Web log to estimate their effectiveness. It is shown through performance experiments that the proposed rule-based methods are effective in improving the system performance in terms of the average latency as well as the cache hit ratio of mobile clients.     

Downlink TCP performance under cross layer rate and power allocation in infrastructure TH-PPM UWB networks

Ultra wideband (UWB) systems are currently an important wireless infrastructure for efficient short-range communications and mobile applications. To improve the system efficiency while guaranteeing the radio link level quality of services, the transmission rate and power of the mobile nodes in UWB based infrastructure networks can be dynamically adjusted by executing an optimization algorithm at the access points (APs). In this paper, we present a cross layer rate and power allocation algorithm based on the multilayer model of time hopping (TH) pulse position modulation (PPM) UWB multimedia networks. We consider the performance of the TCP protocol under the proposed cross layer allocation scheme in various realistic UWB based infrastructure networking scenarios.     

Mobile broadcast services with MIMO antennae in 4G wireless networks

The deployment of wireless data broadcast to empower mobile information services as a resource-conserving means offers significant benefits due to the scalability feature offered by the technology. In this paper, we present a novel and holistic data broadcast management approach in 4 G wireless networks with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennae. The proposed scheme consists of three elements, namely: (i) broadcast ordering; (ii) Global indexing; and (iii) merging data structure. With the integration of these elements, we expect to obtain substantial efficiency for mobile computing clients when retrieving data on-air. We have experimentally evaluated the performance of the proposed model including comparison with the relevant schemes. The results from the experiments affirm the effectiveness of our proposed approach in respect to minimizing query access time and conserving energy utilization of the clients.     

Automated generation of composite web services based on functional semantics

Most of studies on the automated generation of composite Web services create composite services by chaining available services’ inputs and outputs, but do not consider their functional semantics. Therefore, unsatisfied results may be generated against users’ intentions. Furthermore, the time complexity is very high since every possible combination of available services should be considered. To resolve these problems, we propose a composition method that explicitly specifies and uses the functional semantics of Web services. Specifically, the proposed method is based on a graph model, which represents the functional semantics of Web services.     

Optimizing index allocation for sequential data broadcasting in wireless mobile computing

Energy saving is one of the most important issues in wireless mobile computing. Among others, one viable approach to achieving energy saving is to use an indexed data organization to broadcast data over wireless channels to mobile units. Using indexed broadcasting, mobile units can be guided to the data of interest efficiently and only need to be actively listening to the broadcasting channel when the relevant information is present. We explore the issue of indexing data with skewed access for sequential broadcasting in wireless mobile computing. We first propose methods to build index trees based on access frequencies of data records. To minimize the average cost of index probes, we consider two cases: one for fixed index fanouts and the other for variant index fanouts, and devise algorithms to construct index trees for both cases. We show that the cost of index probes can be minimized not only by employing an imbalanced index tree that is designed in accordance with data access skew, but also by exploiting variant fanouts for index nodes. Note that, even for the same index tree, different broadcasting orders of data records will lead to different average data access times. To address this issue, we develop an algorithm to determine the optimal order for sequential data broadcasting to minimize the average data access time. Performance evaluation on the algorithms proposed is conducted. Examples and remarks are given to illustrate our results.     

Customizing Graphics for Tiny Displays of Mobile Devices

Advances in mobile devices and wireless telecommunication infrastructure already provide mobile users with access to online information sources and services. Compared to the PC world, however, mobile access is still quite restricted, especially with regard to the display of graphical representations, such as images, drawings, diagrams, maps and logos. Since graphical representations are increasingly used in the World Wide Web for the purpose of information presentation, the adaptation of graphics for tiny displays is a challenge that should not be neglected. The current contribution discusses several transformation approaches which might be employed to accomplish this adaptation task.     

A concurrency control scheme for mobile transactions in broadcast disk environments

Broadcast disk technique has been often used to disseminate frequently requested data efficiently to a large volume of mobile clients over wireless channels. In broadcast disk environments, a server often broadcasts different data items with differing frequencies to reflect the skewed data access patterns of mobile clients. Previously proposed concurrency control methods for mobile transactions in wireless broadcast environments are focused on the mobile transactions with uniform data access patterns. These protocols perform poorly in broadcast disk environments where the data access patterns of mobile transactions are skewed. In broadcast disk environments, the time length of a broadcast cycle usually becomes large to reflect the skewed data access patterns. This will often cause read-only transactions to access old data items rather than the latest data items. Furthermore, updating mobile transactions will be frequently aborted and restarted in the final validation stage due to the update conflict of the same data items with high access frequencies. This problem will increase the average response time of the update mobile transactions and waste the uplink communication bandwidth. In this paper, we extend the existing FBOCC concurrency control method to efficiently handle mobile transactions with skewed data access patterns in broadcast disk environments. Our method allows read-only transactions to access the more updated data, and reduces the average response time of updating transactions through early aborts and restarts. Our method also reduces the amount of uplink communication bandwidth for the final validation of the update transactions. We present an in-depth experimental analysis of our method by comparing with existing concurrency control protocols. Our performance analysis shows that it significantly decreases the average response time and the amount of uplink bandwidths over existing methods.     

Personal service areas for mobile Web applications

Location-based mobile services let wireless mobile users access Web-based information about resources in their immediate vicinities. The authors describe an algorithm that draws on context mobility elements, such as the user's travel direction and speed, to form personal service areas. Their experimental context-aware tourist information system (CATIS) leverages XML technologies and Web services to provide tourist information to mobile users based on these personal service areas and the users' preferences. Because Web service performance depends on the underlying databases, the authors also developed a layered caching scheme for storing environmental data to improve response time.     

Websigns: hyperlinking physical locations to the Web

HP researchers are developing handheld devices that combine wireless technology and ubiquitous computing to provide a transparent linkage between physical entities in the environment and resources available on the Web. First-generation mobile computing technologies typically use protocols such as WAP and i-mode to let PDAs, smart phones, and other wireless devices with Web browsers access the Internet, thereby freeing users from the shackles of their desktops. We believe, in addition, users would benefit from having access to devices that combine the advantages of wireless technology and ubiquitous computing to provide a transparent linkage between the physical world around them and the resources available on the Web. We are developing devices that augment users' reality with Web services related to the physical objects they see     

A tree-structured index allocation method with replication over multiple broadcast channels in wireless environments

Broadcast has often been used to disseminate frequently requested data efficiently to a large volume of mobile units over single or multiple channels. Since mobile units have limited battery power, the minimization of the access and tuning times for the broadcast data is an important problem. There have been many research efforts that focus on minimizing access and tuning times by providing indexes on the broadcast data. We have studied an efficient index allocation method for broadcast data with skewed access frequencies over multiple physical channels which cannot be coalesced into a single high bandwidth channel. Previously proposed index allocation techniques have one of two problems. The first problem is that they require equal size for both index and data. The second problem is that their performance degrades when the number of given physical channels is not enough. These two problems result in an increased average access time for the broadcast data. To cope with these problems, we propose a tree-structured index allocation method. Our method minimizes the average access time by broadcasting the hot data and their indices more frequently than the less hot data and their indexes over the dedicated index and data channels. We present an in-depth experimental and theoretical analysis of our method by comparing it with other similar techniques. Our performance analysis shows that it significantly decreases the average access and tuning times for the broadcast data over existing methods.     

A hybrid scheduling scheme for data broadcast over a single channel in mobile environments

Various broadcast schemes have been proposed to reduce the data access time of mobile clients. However, they are based either on the mobile users’ data access frequencies or on the semantic relations of the data. In this paper, we present a hybrid data broadcast scheme based both on semantic relationships and access probabilities. The broadcast scheme we propose generates a broadcast sequence according to the semantic relationships and replicates popular data items several times according to the data access probabilities. The efficiency of our broadcast scheme is shown via performance evaluations.     

Efficient access to Web services

For Web services to expand across the Internet, users need to be able to efficiently access and share Web services. The authors present a query infrastructure that treats Web services as first-class objects. It evaluates queries through the invocations of different Web service operations. Because efficiency plays a central role in such evaluations, the authors propose a query optimization model based on aggregating the quality of Web service (QoWS) parameters of different Web services. The model adjusts QoWS through a dynamic rating scheme and multilevel matching in which the rating provides an assessment of Web services' behavior. Multilevel matching allows the expansion of the solution space by enabling similar and partial answers.     

Pandora: An SMS-oriented m-informational system for educational realms

e-Informational systems based on the Internet infrastructure and services like e-mail, WWW, etc., are a de-facto option for various educational realms, in order to enhance the quality and diversity of services offered to their educators and students. On the other hand, despite the fact that pure mobile services like short message service (SMS) or multimedia message service (MMS) have managed to highly penetrate the wireless market to a great degree and gain users’ wide acceptance, are rarely employed to support or offer informational services in the context of education. In this paper, we describe in detail a fully functional SMS-oriented mobile-informational (m-informational) system named Pandora that was designed and developed from the onset to specifically support a plethora of services obtainable mainly by the students of our university. The analysis and our contribution are two-fold starting from the theoretical background and continuing to the technical part of the Pandora system. We present and discuss several issues, including the different services that Pandora supports, system architecture, Pandora's box, core, Web services, security, etc. We demonstrate that the proposed system is practical to implement, flexible, effective, secure, affordable and above all scalable and potentially extensible.     

基于数据访问概率的广播索引技术

在移动计算中,如何节约移动设备的电源是一个重要的研究方向。采用索引广播的方式可以使移动设备选择性地监听信道,从而减少了电源的消耗。该文提出了为广播数据建立基于访问概率的索引技术,并分固定扇出的非平衡索引树和可变扇出的索引树两种情况讨论如何降低平均访问代价。针对这两种情况,分别设计了构造索引树的算法。     

Object Organization on a Single Broadcast Channel in the Mobile Computing Environment

Advances in computation and communication technologies allow users to access computer networks, using portable computing devices via a wireless connection, while mobile. Furthermore, multidatabases offer practical means of managing information sharing from multiple preexisting heterogeneous databases. By superimposing the mobile computing environment onto the multidatabase system, a new computing environment is attained.In this work, we concentrate on the effects of the mobile-computing environment on query processing in multidatabases. We show how broadcasting, as a possible solution, would respond to current challenges such as bandwidth and storage limitations. Organizing data objects along a single-dimension broadcast channel should follow the semantic links assumed within the multiple-dimension objects' structure. Learning from our past experiences in objects organization on conventional storage mediums (disks), we propose schemes for organizing objects along a single broadcast air channel. The proposed schemes are simulated and analyzed.