On the integration of context-based heterogeneous middleware for ubiquitous computing

ABSTRACT

The use of context provision middleware is a promising approach for dealing with the low-level functions involved in handling contextual events when building ubiquitous applications. Several middleware platforms are currently available that provide support for context handling, each one adopting different models for interacting with applications and representing contextual data, and aiming at handling different types of context. There are ubiquitous applications that need dealing with a high degree of heterogeneous context sources and detection of complex event patterns thus requiring support of different and often noninteroperable middleware platforms. For this kind of application, developers must handle the platform heterogeneity, thus increasing the complexity of the application code. To address this issue, we propose OpenCOPI (Open COntext Platform Integration), a context platform that integrates several context provision middleware and provides common services for handling the composition of contextual events in order to offer a unified context platform. This paper introduces OpenCOPI and details its composition event service, CES, showing the integrating of two context middleware. The paper also describes a case study, based on a Meeting Detection System, to illustrate the use of CES.

REFERENCES

• 1: Weiser, M. 1991 The Computer for the Twenty-First Century. In Scientific American, 94--10 (Sept, 1991).
• 2: Dey, A. and Abowd, G. 2000 The Context Toolkit: Aiding the Development of Context-Aware Applications. In Workshop on Software Engineering for Wearable and Pervasive Computing, Limerick, Ireland.
• 3: Vagner Sacramento , Markus Endler , Hana K. Rubinsztejn , Luciana dos S. Lima , Kleder Goncalves , Giulliano A. Bueno, An Architecture Supporting the Development of Collaborative Applications for Mobile Users, Proceedings of the 13th IEEE International Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises, p.109-114, June 14-16, 2004 [doi>10.1109/ENABL.2004.10]
• 4: Pierre-Charles David , Thomas Ledoux, WildCAT: a generic framework for context-aware applications, Proceedings of the 3rd international workshop on Middleware for pervasive and ad-hoc computing, p.1-7, November 28-December 02, 2005, Grenoble, France [doi>10.1145/1101480.1101483]
• 5: Licia Capra , Wolfgang Emmerich , Cecilia Mascolo, CARISMA: Context-Aware Reflective mIddleware System for Mobile Applications, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.29 n.10, p.929-945, October 2003 [doi>10.1109/TSE.2003.1237173]
• 6: Moreto, D. and Endler, M. 2001 Evaluating Composite Events using Shared Trees. In IEEE Proceedings -- Software, Vol. 148, 1--10.
• 7: Li, G. and Jacobsen, H. 2005 Composite Subscriptions in Content-based Publish/Subscribe Systems. In International Middleware Conference. Grenoble, France.
• 8: Rubinsztejn, H., et al, 2004 Support for Context-Aware Collaboration. Mobility Aware Technologies and Applications. In LNCS Vol 3284, 37--47.
• 9: Baptista, G., et al, 2007 Uma API Pub/Sub para Aplicações Móveis Sensíveis ao Contexto. In 1st Worskhop on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, Gramado, RS (in portuguese).
• 10: Matthias Baldauf , Schahram Dustdar , Florian Rosenberg, A survey on context-aware systems, International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, v.2 n.4, p.263-277, June 2007 [doi>10.1504/IJAHUC.2007.014070]
• 11: Lopes, F., Cacho, N. and Batista, T. 2007 Um Mecanismo de Composição de Eventos para Resolução de Exceções Sensíveis ao Contexto. In Proc. Software Engineering Brazilian Symposium, João Pessoa/PB, (in portuguese).
• 12: Harmelen, F., et al. 2002 Owl Web Ontology Language Reference. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-ref/.
• 13: Xiao Hang Wang , Da Qing Zhang , Tao Gu , Hung Keng Pung, Ontology Based Context Modeling and Reasoning using OWL, Proceedings of the Second IEEE Annual Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops, p.18, March 14-17, 2004
• 14: Wang, J. et al. 2004 A sensor-fusion approach for meeting detection In Workshop on Context Awareness, Boston.
• 15: Pietzuch, P., Shand, B. and Bacon, J. 2003 A Framework for Event Composition in Distributed Systems. In 4th ACM/IFIP/USENIX Middleware, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.4 Distributed Systems
          Subjects: Distributed applications

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design

Keywords:
context heterogeneity, context-based middleware, pervasive computing, ubiquitous applications