Mobile agent applicability

In this paper we present experiences from building several mobile agent-based distributed applications using the agent system TACOMA. Our aim is to demonstrate mobile agent applicability potential through some real and concrete examples. We conclude that mobile agents, even if they simplify remote installation of software, complement rather than replace other structuring techniques in distributed applications     

Aware Community Portals: Shared Information Appliances for Transitional Spaces

People wish to maintain a level of awareness of timely information, including presence of others in the workplace and other social settings. We believe this provides better exchange, coordination and contact within a community, especially as people work in asynchronous times and distributed locations. The challenge is to develop lightweight techniques for awareness, interaction and communication using shared information appliances. In this paper, we describe the design of an exploratory responsive display projected within a shared workspace at the MIT Media Lab. The system uses visual sensing to provide relevant information and constructs traces of people’s activity over time. Such aware portals may be deployed in casual workplace domains, distributed workgroups, and everyday public spaces.     

SelfMotion: A declarative approach for adaptive service-oriented mobile applications

Modern society increasingly relies on mobile devices. This explains the growing demand for high quality software for such devices. To improve the efficiency of the development life-cycle, shortening time-to-market while keeping quality under control, mobile applications are typically developed by composing together ad-hoc developed components, services available on-line, and other third-party mobile applications. Applications are thus built as heterogeneous compositions, whose characteristics strongly depend on the components and services they integrate. To cope with unpredictable changes and failures, but also with the various settings offered by the plethora of available devices, mobile applications need to be as adaptive as possible. However, mainstream adaptation strategies are usually defined imperatively and require complex control strategies strongly intertwined with the application logic, yielding to applications that are difficult to build, maintain, and evolve. We address this issue by proposing a declarative approach to compose adaptive heterogeneous mobile applications. The advantages of this approach are demonstrated through an example inspired by an existing worldwide distributed mobile application, while the implementation of the proposed solution has been validated through a set of simulations and experiments aimed at illustrating its performance.     

Joint computation offloading and resource provisioning for edge-cloud computing environment: A machine learning-based approach

In recent years, the usage of smart mobile applications to facilitate day-to-day activities in various domains for enhancing the quality of human life has increased widely. With rapid developments of smart mobile applications, the edge computing paradigm has emerged as a distributed computing solution to support serving these applications closer to mobile devices. Since the submitted workloads to the smart mobile applications changes over the time, decision making about offloading and edge server provisioning to handle the dynamic workloads of mobile applications is one of the challenging issues into the resource management scope. In this work, we utilized learning automata as a decision-maker to offload the incoming dynamic workloads into the edge or cloud servers. In addition, we propose an edge server provisioning approach using long short-term memory model to estimate the future workload and reinforcement learning technique to make an appropriate scaling decision. The simulation results obtained under real and synthetic workloads demonstrate that the proposed solution increases the CPU utilization and reduces the execution time and energy consumption, compared with the other algorithms.     

CARISMA: context-aware reflective middleware system for mobile applications

Mobile devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants, have gained wide-spread popularity. These devices will increasingly be networked, thus enabling the construction of distributed applications that have to adapt to changes in context, such as variations in network bandwidth, battery power, connectivity, reachability of services and hosts, etc. In this paper, we describe CARISMA, a mobile computing middleware which exploits the principle of reflection to enhance the construction of adaptive and context-aware mobile applications. The middleware provides software engineers with primitives to describe how context changes should be handled using policies. These policies may conflict. We classify the different types of conflicts that may arise in mobile computing and argue that conflicts cannot be resolved statically at the time applications are designed, but, rather, need to be resolved at execution time. We demonstrate a method by which policy conflicts can be handled; this method uses a microeconomic approach that relies on a particular type of sealed-bid auction. We describe how this method is implemented in the CARISMA middleware architecture and sketch a distributed context-aware application for mobile devices to illustrate how the method works in practice. We show, by way of a systematic performance evaluation, that conflict resolution does not imply undue overheads, before comparing our research to related work and concluding the paper.     

Distributed and intelligent information access in manufacturing enterprises through mobile devices

Due to the distributed nature of todays enterprises and the growing number of employees who are mobile, newer models of communication are required to cater to the information needs of manufacturing personnel. Mobile applications such as information alerts, disconnected information processing and background processing are applications gaining significant attention in manufacturing companies. In this paper, we describe the framework and architecture of a mobile-agent-based system, which provides mobile information services to the workforce in motion in manufacturing enterprises. We emphasize on background and disconnected processing and demonstrate the use of a Mobile-agent-based system to achieve it. Recognizing the need to exchange information between various distributed information sources, we explore the use of XML-based agent communication and discuss how XML can be used for inter-agent communication. We describe the design and implementation of a prototype system and discuss application scenarios.     

An intelligent memory caching architecture for data-intensive multimedia applications

With the rapid developments in cloud computing and mobile networks, multimedia content can be accessed conveniently. Recently, some novel intelligent caching-based approaches have been proposed to improve the memory architectures for multimedia applications. These applications often face bottleneck related challenges which result in performance degradation and service delay issues. Intelligent multimedia network applications access the shared data by using a specific network file system. This results in answering the processing related constraints on hard-drive storage and might result in bringing bottleneck issues. Therefore, to improve the performance of these multimedia network applications, we present an intelligent distributed memory caching system. We integrate the multimedia application message passing interface in a multi-threaded environment and propose an algorithm which can handle concurrent response behavior for different multimedia applications. Results demonstrate that our proposed scheme outperforms traditional approaches in terms of throughput and file read access features.

     

EgoSpaces: facilitating rapid development of context-aware mobile applications

Today's mobile applications require constant adaptation to their changing environments, or contexts. Technological advances have increased the pervasiveness of mobile computing devices such as laptops, handhelds, and embedded sensors. The sheer amount of context information available for adaptation places a heightened burden on application developers as they must manage and utilize vast amounts of data from diverse sources. Facilitating programming in this data-rich environment requires a middleware that provides context information to applications in an abstract form. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of such a middleware that allows programmers to focus on high-level interactions among programs and to employ declarative abstract context specifications in settings that exhibit transient interactions with opportunistically encountered components. We also discuss the novel context-aware abstractions the middleware provides and the programming knowledge necessary to write applications using it. Finally, we provide examples demonstrating the infrastructure's ability to support differing tasks from a wide variety of application domains.     

Experimental evaluation of five methods for collecting emotions in field settings with mobile applications

This paper presents experiences on using five different self-report methods, two adopted from literature and three self-created, for collecting information about emotional responses to mobile applications. These methods were used in nine separate field experiments done in naturalistic settings. Based on our experiments, we can argue that all of these methods can be successfully used for collecting emotional responses to evaluate mobile applications in mobile settings. However, differences can be identified in the suitability of the methods for different research setups. Even though the self-report instruments provide a feasible alternative for evaluating emotions evoked by mobile applications, several challenges were identified, for example, in capturing the dynamic nature of mobile interaction usage situations and contexts. To summarise our results, we propose a framework for selecting and comparing these methods for different usage purposes.     

光伏应用系统远程监测平台设计

随着太阳能发电技术的不断发展,光伏应用系统越多的被工业单位和个人使用;为了解决分布式离散光伏应用系统检测和管理维护的技术难题,文章阐述了一种光伏应用系统远程监测平台的设计方案;该方案在研究分析无线自组网技术和无线数据传输技术的基础上,针对光伏应用系统的分布特点,将嵌入式技术,ZigBee技术,GPRS-DTU技术以及互联网Web监测技术相结合,设计完成以数据采集节点、数据中心节点、Web服务器,以及手机客户端为主要部件的远程监测系统;并对该系统进行了实验验证;实验结果表明该系统方案能够对远程分散的光伏应用系统的运行数据进行采集,组网汇聚和远程传输;并可以通过计算机或手机等移动客户端对数据进行远程访问和控制;为分散的光伏应用系统的远程管理和维护提供了一种有效的技术方案。     

Mobile agent-enabled framework for structuring and building distributed systems on the internet

Mobile agent has shown its promise as a powerful means to complement and enhance existing technology in various application areas. In particular, existing work has demonstrated that MA can simplify the development and improve the performance of certain classes of distributed applications, especially for those running on a wide-area, heterogeneous, and dynamic networking environment like the Internet. In our previous work, we extended the application of MA to the design of distributed control functions, which require the maintenance of logical relationship among and/or coordination of proc- essing entities in a distributed system. A novel framework is presented for structuring and building distributed systems, which use cooperating mobile agents as an aid to carry out coordination and cooperation tasks in distributed systems. The framework has been used for designing various distributed control functions such as load balancing and mutual ex- clusion in our previous work. In this paper, we use the framework to propose a novel ap- proach to detecting deadlocks in distributed system by using mobile agents, which dem- onstrates the advantage of being adaptive and flexible of mobile agents. We first describe the MAEDD (Mobile Agent Enabled Deadlock Detection) scheme, in which mobile agents are dispatched to collect and analyze deadlock information distributed across the network sites and, based on the analysis, to detect and resolve deadlocks. Then the design of an adaptive hybrid algorithm derived from the framework is presented. The algorithm can dynamically adapt itself to the changes in system state by using different deadlock detec- tion strategies. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been evaluated using simulations. The results show that the algorithm can outperform existing algorithms that use a fixed deadlock detection strategy.     

Distributed information service architecture for overlapping multiaccess networks

Multimedia delivery in mobile multiaccess network environments has emerged as a key area within the future Internet research domain. When network heterogeneity is coupled with the proliferation of multiaccess capabilities in mobile handheld devices, one can expect many new avenues for developing novel services and applications. New mechanisms for audio/video delivery over multiaccess networks will define the next generation of major distribution technologies, but will require significantly more information to operate according to their best potential. In this paper we present and evaluate a distributed information service, which can enhance media delivery over such multiaccess networks. We describe the proposed information service, which is built upon the new distributed control and management framework (DCMF) and the mobility management triggering functionality (TRG). We use a testbed which includes 3G/HSPA, WLAN and WiMAX network accesses to evaluate our proposed architecture and present results that demonstrate its value in enhancing video delivery and minimizing service disruption in an involved scenario.     

基于改进CURE算法的不确定性移动用户数据聚类

随着云计算、大数据以及移动互联网的发展,移动终端用户数据呈现出数据量大、噪声大、动态性及不确定性增强的趋势,影响了移动用户数据聚类准确率与效率。针对上述问题,提出了一种改进的层次聚类算法CURE。该算法将原有算法中抽样处理数据的方式用Map Reduce函数实现并行化处理,同时结合区间数的概念,将移动用户数据用一个区间表示,计算其区间距离来适应移动用户数据的不确定性特点,从而提高聚类效率与准确率。最后利用MIT Reality项目数据集进行仿真,仿真结果表明了该方法的有效性及可行性,为移动用户数据的进一步利用及用户的个性化推荐提供支持。     

Promoting the development of secure mobile agent applications

In this paper, we present a software architecture and a development environment for the implementation of applications based on secure mobile agents. Recent breakthroughs in mobile agent security have unblocked this technology, but there is still one important issue to overcome: the complexity of programming applications using these security solutions. Our proposal aims to facilitate and speed up the process of implementing cryptographic protocols, and to allow the reuse of these protocols for the development of secure mobile agents. As a result, the proposed architecture and development environment promote the use of mobile agent technology for the implementation of secure distributed applications.     

MobiPADS: a reflective middleware for context-aware mobile computing

Traditionally, middleware technologies, such as CORBA, Java RMI, and Microsoft's DCOM, have provided a set of distributed computing services that essentially abstract the underlying network services to a monolithic "black box." In a mobile operating environment, the fundamental assumption of middleware abstracting a unified distributed service for all types of applications operating over a static network infrastructure is no longer valid. In particular, mobile applications are not able to leverage the benefits of adaptive computing to optimize its computation based on current contextual situations. In this paper, we introduce the Mobile Platform for Actively Deployable Service (MobiPADS) system. MobiPADS is designed to support context-aware processing by providing an executing platform to enable active service deployment and reconfiguration of the service composition in response to environments of varying contexts. Unlike most mobile middleware, MobiPADS supports dynamic adaptation at both the middleware and application layers to provide flexible configuration of resources to optimize the operations of mobile applications. Within the MobiPADS system, services (known as mobilets) are configured as chained service objects to provide augmented services to the underlying mobile applications so as to alleviate the adverse conditions of a wireless environment.     

Scheduling and development support in the Scavenger cyber foraging system

Cyber foraging is a pervasive computing technique where small mobile devices offload resource intensive tasks to stronger computing machinery in the vicinity.One of the main challenges within cyber foraging is that it is very difficult to develop cyber foraging enabled applications. An application using cyber foraging is working with mobile, distributed and, possibly, parallel computing; fields within computer science notoriously hard for programmers to grasp.This paper presents Scavenger—a cyber foraging system supporting easy development of mobile cyber foraging applications, while still delivering efficient, mobile use of remote computing resources through the use of a custom built mobile code execution environment and a new adaptive, dual-profiling scheduler.     

The SATIN Component System-A Metamodel for Engineering Adaptable Mobile Systems

Mobile computing devices, such as personal digital assistants and mobile phones, are becoming increasingly popular, smaller, and more capable. We argue that mobile systems should be able to adapt to changing requirements and execution environments. Adaptation requires the ability-to reconfigure the deployed code base on a mobile device. Such reconfiguration is considerably simplified if mobile applications are component-oriented rather than monolithic blocks of code. We present the SATIN (system adaptation targeting integrated networks) component metamodel, a lightweight local component metamodel that offers the flexible use of logical mobility primitives to reconfigure the software system by dynamically transferring code. The metamodel is implemented in the SATIN middleware system, a component-based mobile computing middleware that uses the mobility primitives defined in the metamodel to reconfigure both itself and applications that it hosts. We demonstrate the suitability of SATIN in terms of lightweightedness, flexibility, and reusability for the creation of adaptable mobile systems by using it to implement, port, and evaluate a number of existing and new applications, including an active network platform developed for satellite communication at the European space agency. These applications exhibit different aspects of adaptation and demonstrate the flexibility of the approach and the advantages gained     

Dispatching mobile Agents for DDM applicationss

Techniques for mining information from distributed data sources accessible over the Internet are a growing area of research. The mobile Agent paradigm opens a new door for distributed data mining and knowledge discovery applications. In this paper we present the design of a mobile agent system which couples service discovery, using a logical language based application programming interface, and database access. Combining mobility with database access provides a means to create more efficient data mining applications. The processing of data is moved to network wide data locations instead of the traditional approach of bringing huge amount of data to the processing location. Our proposal aims at implementing system tools that will enable intelligent mobile Agents to roam the Internet searching for distributed data services. Agents access the data, discover patterns, extract useful information from facts recorded in the databases, then communicate local results back to the user. The user then generates a global data model through the aggregation of results provided by all Agents. This overcomes barriers posed by network congestion, poor security, and unreliability.