Middleware has become a key enabler for the development of distributed applications. Unfortunately, conventional middleware technologies do not yet offer sufficient functionality to make them suitable for mobile environments. This dissertation proposes a novel middleware approach termed opportunistic overlays and its dynamically reconfigurable support framework for building efficient mobile applications. Specifically, we address the inefficiency of content delivery introduced by node mobility and by dynamically changing system loads, in the context of publish/subscribe systems. In response to changes in physical network topology, in nodes' physical locations, and in network node behaviors, the opportunistic overlay approach dynamically adapts event dissemination structures (i.e., broker overlays) with the goal of optimizing end-to-end delays in event delivery. Adaptation techniques include the dynamic construction of broker overlay networks, runtime changes of mobile clients' assignments to brokers, and dynamic broker load balancing. Essentially, opportunistic overlays implement a middleware-level analogue of the networking routing protocols used in wireless communications (i.e., Mobile IP, AODV, DSR and DSDV). By thus coordinating network- with middleware-level routing, opportunistic overlays can attain substantial performance improvements over non-adaptive event systems. Such improvements are due to their use of shorter network paths and better balancing of loads across event brokers. Opportunistic overlays and the adaptive methods they use are realized by a set of distributed protocols implemented in a Java-based publish/subscribe infrastructure. Comprehensive performance evaluations are performed via simulation, emulation, and with two representative applications on actual networks. Experimental results demonstrate that the opportunistic overlay approach is practically applicable and that the performance advantages attained from the use of opportunistic overlays can be substantial, in both infrastructure-based mobile environments and mobile ad hoc networks.

The convergence of data, audio and video on IP networks is changing the way individuals, groups and organizations communicate. This diversity of communication media presents opportunities for creating synergistic collaborative communications. This form of collaborative communication is however not without its challenges. The increasing number of communication service providers coupled with a combinatorial mix of offered services, varying Quality-of-Service and oscillating pricing of services increases the complexity for the user to manage and maintain `always best' priced or performance services. Consumers have to manually manage and adapt their communication in line with differences in services across devices, networks and media while ensuring that the usage remain consistent with their intended goals. This dissertation proposes a novel user-centric approach to address this problem. The proposed approach aims to reduce the aforementioned complexity to the user by (1) providing high-level abstractions and a policy based methodology for automated selection of the communication services guided by high-level user policies and (2) providing services through the seamless integration of multiple communication service providers and providing an extensible framework to support the integration of multiple communication service providers. The approach was implemented in the Communication Virtual Machine (CVM), a model-driven technology for realizing communication applications. The CVM includes the Network Communication Broker, the layer responsible for providing a network-independent API to the upper layers of CVM. The initial prototype for the NCB supported only a single communication framework which limited the number, quality and types of services available. Experimental evaluation of the approach show the additional overhead of the approach is minimal compared to the individual communication services frameworks. Additionally the automated approach proposed out performed the individual communication services frameworks for cross framework switching.

No description available.

[pt] Aplicações para o monitoramento de frotas de veículos e sistemas de logística, coordenação em situações de emergência, monitoramento ambiental ou de gestão de força de trabalho móvel podem usar redes móveis como meio de comunicação, troca de informações e de coordenação entre um número possivelmente grande de nós móveis interligados por uma rede WAN. A maioria desses sistemas requer o monitoramento em tempo real das informações de contexto dos nós móveis, interação com todos os nós participantes, bem como meios de adaptação num cenário muito dinâmico, onde não é possível prever quando, onde e por quanto tempo os nós permanecerão conectados. As soluções atuais ainda não têm recursos essenciais necessários para a comunicação com os nós móveis, tais como a entrega confiável de mensagens, suporte a handover, resistência a conectividade intermitente, mudanças de endereço IP e firewall transversal. Esta tese propõe um modelo de gestão de dados que permite a implantação de uma rede de componentes de provedores de dados com disseminação e transformação rápida e confiável de informações entre milhares de nós móveis interligados através de internet sem fio. Os testes de desempenho indicam que o nosso modelo consegue escalar para milhares de nós móveis e suporta disseminação confiável, rápida e com alta taxa de transferência da informação entre milhares de provedores de contexto e consumidores de contexto móveis. / [en] Applications such as vehicle fleet monitoring and logistic systems, emergency response coordination, environmental monitoring or mobile workforce management, employ mobile networks as means of communication, information sharing and coordination among a possibly very large set of mobile nodes interconnected by a Wide Area Network (WAN). The majority of those systems thus requires real-time tracking of the mobile nodes context information, interaction with all participant nodes, as well as means of adaptability in a very dynamic scenario, where it is not possible to predict when, where and for how long the nodes will remain connected. Despite being a subject of much research, current solutions still lack essential features required for communication with mobile nodes, such as reliable message delivery, handover support, resilience to intermittent connectivity, IP address changes and firewall transversal. This thesis proposes a data management model that enables deployment of a network of Data Provider components with reliable and on-time dissemination and transformation of information among thousands of mobile nodes interconnected through wireless internet. Performance tests indicate that our model scales to thousands of mobile nodes and supports reliable, high throughput and on-time data dissemination between several thousands of mobile Data Providers and Data Consumers.

Cílem této práce je vytvořit komunikační sběrnici pro platformu Testos, což umožní nástrojům platformy spolu komunikovat a využívat navzájem svoje služby. V textu jsou prozkoum8na současná řešení a protokoly založené na modelu Publish-Subscribe. Dále také práce specifikuje požadavky na komunikační sběrnici vyhovující potřebám platformy Testos a také navrhuje řešení pro splnění daných požadavků.   V rámci výzkumu byly prozkoumány tři řešení - MQTT, DDS a AMQP. Průzkum každého řešení byl zaměřen na způsob komunikace a hlavní funkční prvky. Jako startovací bod implementace sběrnice byl vybrán protokol MQTT. Tato práce také specifikuje jak tento protokol rozšířit, aby byly splněny požadavky na sběrnici. Mezi stěžejní rozšíření navrhnuté v rámci této práce patří management životního cyklu požadavků rozšiřující způsob doručování zpráv a mechanismus zasílání požadavků standardu MQTT. Protokol byl také rozšířen o možnost shlukování zpráv do BULK paketu za účelem snížení množství potřebných síťových zdrojů. Výsledkem je Testos Bus, který je postavený na upraveném a rozšířeném protokolu MQTT, který zahrunuje implementaci brokeru a klientských knihoven pro Python a C++. Testos Bus naplňuje všechny povinné požadavky platformy, což ověřují automatické testy.

No description available.