Context-based heterogeneous middleware integration

Embedded and Real- …, 2005

Context-aware middleware encompasses uniform abstractions and reliable services for common operations, supports for most of the tasks involved in dealing with context, and thus simplifying the development of context-aware applications. In this paper, ...

2014

In this paper, we present OpenCOPI (Open COntext Platform Integration), a Service-Oriented Architecture-based middleware platform that supports the integration of services provided by distinct sources, ranging from services offered by simple systems to more complex services provided by context-provision middleware. OpenCOPI offers selection and composition mechanisms to, respectively, select and compose services provided by different sources, considering applications of both Quality of Service and Quality of Context requirements. It also offers an adaptation mechanism that enables to adapt the application execution due to service failures, service quality fluctuation and user mobility. OpenCOPI allows the definition of applications in a higher abstraction level by the specification of a semantic workflow that contains abstract activities. This paper illustrates the use of OpenCOPI in an application from the Gas & Oil Industry and it also shows the evaluation of the main mechanisms of OpenCOPI: the service selection, composition, adaptation and workflow execution.

2003

It is widely accepted in the Pervasive Computing community that contextual interactions are the key to the delivery of truly calm technology. However, there is currently no easy way to incorporate contextual data into an application. If contextual data is used, it is generally in an ad hoc manner, which means that developers have to spend time on low-level details. There have been many projects investigating this area, however as yet none of them provide support for all of the key issues of dynamic composition and flexible representation of contextual information as well as the problems of scalability and adaptability to environmental changes. In this paper we present the Strathclyde Context Infrastructure (SCI), a middleware infrastructure for discovery, aggregation, and delivery of context information.

2008

Pervasive computing world composed of plethora of devices using different technologies, resources, connectivity capabilities; and these devices or associated applications meet difficulties in interpreting and integrating knowledge or context information coming from different sources. To tackle this problem, we have developed a middleware architecture called Context-aware Service Platform or CASP, to relieve the context-aware services from the burden of integrating, managing and querying context information from various sources. In this paper, we briefly introduce our context-aware middleware framework; this is followed by detailed descriptions on the context modeling approach based on ontology and the integration of the ontology-based information model into our platform. Following this, we present how the captured raw data are populated on our context model, and relevant contexts can be queried via the Context Query API.

CEPIS promotes, 2007

UPGRADE Vol. VIII, No. 4, August 2007 25© Novática Ambient Intelligence Keywords: Ambient Intelligence, Context, Heteroge-neity, Middleware, Ubiquitous Computing. 1 Introduction Pervasive applications which support smart environ-ments integrate many electronic devices which ...

2004

Much business and technical attention is being paid to the potential for new services in a ubiquitous computing environment. One of the probable features of these sendees is 'context-awareness', which is made possible by using information from the physical environment through sensors. This paper provides an overview of the opportunities for new sendees and the requirements for middleware technologies. The middleware sub-theme group in Yaoyorozu-project has been focusing on the technological aspects for middleware in the ubiquitous computing environment. This paper, in addition, discusses user-centric requirements and middleware technologies for them claimed in 2 years activities of this project based on the trans-disciplinary science.

Natural Language Engineering, 2007

Context awareness has emerged as an important element in distributed computing. It offers mechanisms that allow applications to be aware of their environment and enable these applications to adjust their behavior to the current context. Considering the dynamic nature of context, the data flow of relevant contextual information can be significant. In order to keep track of this information flow, a flexible service mechanism should be available for the client applications. In this document we present a service-oriented middleware for context-aware applications. This middleware provides support to leverage the development of context-aware applications by providing a scripting-like approach for context-aware application development; allowing the subscription of rules containing context-based events and conditions and a notification to be sent when the specified context holds. Moreover, a domain-specific language has been developed to express these context-based rules.

2006

Context-aware computing is widely accepted as a promising paradigm to enable seamless computing. Several efforts have been made in order to support context-aware applications through the development of software infrastructures, middlewares and models for describing context information. However, developing such applications is still a complex task because of the lack of adequate software abstractions, programming models, methodologies and efficient middleware. This paper presents an approach for context-aware software development based on a flexible context model and an infrastructure for evolutionary management of context information. We present a context model that provides high-level abstractions to manage and handle context information. In order to demonstrate the capability of the proposed approach, we present a case study of a location-aware instant messaging application.

Sensors, 2015

Context aware applications, which can adapt their behaviors to changing environments, are attracting more and more attention. To simplify the complexity of developing applications, context aware middleware, which introduces context awareness into the traditional middleware, is highlighted to provide a homogeneous interface involving generic context management solutions. This paper provides a survey of state-of-the-art context aware middleware architectures proposed during the period from 2009 through 2015. First, a preliminary background, such as the principles of context, context awareness, context modelling, and context reasoning, is provided for a comprehensive understanding of context aware middleware. On this basis, an overview of eleven carefully selected middleware architectures is presented and their main features explained. Then, thorough comparisons and analysis of the presented middleware architectures are performed based on technical parameters including architectural style, context abstraction, context reasoning, scalability, fault tolerance, interoperability, service discovery, storage, security & privacy, context awareness level, and cloud-based big data analytics. The analysis shows that there is actually no context aware middleware architecture that complies with all requirements. Finally, challenges are pointed out as open issues for future work.

2004

Context-aware services platforms aim at supporting the handling of contextual information in order to provide better user-tailored services. This paper addresses our current efforts towards a configurable and extensible services platform for context-aware applications. It discusses the use of a language and ontologies to cope with configurability and extensibility aspects.