Smart Spaces

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Smart Spaces

• Presented by
• Amit Mahajan

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TOC

• What are "Smart Spaces"?
• Examples.
• Challenges
• UMBC Centaurus Project.
• HP CoolTown Project.
• MIT Oxygen Project.
• UIUC ActiveSpaces Project.
• UW Portolano, UCLA MUSE
• Some other projects links...

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What are "Smart Spaces"?

• Trend in computer systems
• Ubiquity of tiny, low-cost, embedded processors.
• Wireless transceivers integrated with these
  processors.
• Reduction of power consumption. Mobile P-III.
• Highly modular and portable software with
  abstract interfaces. COM and CORBA.
• Low cost sensor technologies. RF and Bluetooth.

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What are "Smart Spaces"?

• These trends permit permit rethinking of
  established communication modes between entities,
  creating what is called "Smart Spaces". "Smart
  Office" or "Smart Homes".
• A smart space is dynamic federation of wireless
  components into an adhoc network, to enable us
  work more effectively with available devices.
  Smart spaces make work easier and increase
  efficiency.

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Examples

• User carries smart card to communicate the URL of
  the presentation to projector.
• Verbally convey the name of person to call,
  retrieves address book, telephone interface and
  connects.
• When phone rings, it communicates to the music
  system to mute itself.
• Switching lights on/off or Playing music using
  PDA.

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Challenges

• Inherit all the disadvantages of mobile computing
  - resources, bandwidth,etc.
• Heterogeneous devices and protocols have to be
  seamlessly handled. Vertical Handoffs.
• Interaction Technologies speech and visual.
• Security (eavesdropping or denial of service)
• Network issues like intermittent connectively
  have to be managed transparently.
• Software components have to be designed
  horizontally ease plug-in.

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UMBC Centaurus

• Connect wireless devices to work collectively for
  the mobile user.
• Provides an infrastructure and communication
  protocol for providing smart services to these
  mobile devices.
• Provide better and more relevant support to
  individual users.
• Minimizes the load on the resource-poor portable
  device.
• List of services is made available to the client
  who can choose the service after authentication.

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Components

• Communication Managers
• Handle all the communication between Centaurus
  system and the Centaurus Client.
• Modules to handle different protocol (IR, RF,
  Ethernet,etc.)
• Layer1 and Layer2
• Service Managers
• Controllers of the system that co-ordinate the
  message passing protocol between Clients and
  Services.
• Responsible for service discovery.

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Components

• Centaurus Services are objects that offer certain
  services to the Centaurus Client.
• Services register with the Service Manager by
  sending CCML (Centuarus Capability Markup Lang)
  file.
• Performs a certain action on behalf of the
  Client.
• These Services could range from controlling a
  light switch or printer.
• A Client is a special kind of Service.
• Registers itself with a Service Manager.
• On registration, it receives the ServiceList,
  which contains the current list of Services.
• Client always has the updated list of services.

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Security and Status Update

• Security aspect of the framework combines
  Distributed Trust and Kerberos.
• Ticket granting server (TS) issues time bound
  signed tickets.
• To access a Service on a certain Service Manager,
  the Client sends its CCML and the ticket.
• The Service Manager checks that the ticket is
  valid and from the TS and then allows the Client
  to register
• Status Update
• Update from a Service, sent to clients by Service
  Manger.
• Implementation
• Service for controlling a lamp (hardware).
• Service for playing MP3 files on Unix (software).

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HP CoolTown

• Offers a web model for supporting nomadic users.
• Automatic discovery of URLs and using localized
  web servers for directories, to create
  location-aware systems
• Premise of using web
• Ubiquitous access.
• No middleware.
• Locality.

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Architecture

• Sensing
• Bottom layer of the infrastructure enables the
  user to acquire URLs from their surroundings or
  from the physical entities in their surroundings.
• Obtain the corresponding URL automatically using
  IR, RF, Barcode, Electronic tags or Optical
  recognition.
• In direct sensing, the beacon or tag directly
  presents the URL of a web resource.
• In indirect sensing, it presents an identifier
  such as an ISBN or a barcode. Resolver, a
  service, returns a URL when given an identifier.

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Architecture

• Context and Physical discovery
• Attach beacons or tags to easy-to-find points on
  physical entities or in physical places and by
  storing appropriate URL values or ID.
• Obtain electronic representation (web page) of
  entity or place from URL.
• The web presence of the designated objects will
  appear as links in the place's web pages.
• Place Manager for web pages, directory and
  resolver.
• Content exchange supports the opposite of
  browsing, pushing the content
• Direct content post
• Indirect content post

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MIT Oxygen

• DARPA supported project.
• Enabling people "to do more by doing less," that
  is, to accomplish more with less work.
• In the future, computation will be freely
  available everywhere, like oxygen in the air we
  breathe.
• Connect dynamically changing configurations of
  self-identifying mobile and stationary devices to
  form collaborative regions.
• Configure collaborative regions automatically,
  creating topologies and adapting them to mobility
  and change

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Oxygen

• Automation Of mundane fns. Machines both listen
  to what we say and do more themselves.
  Appointment agent may decide or defer decision to
  user.
• Devices share some degree of trust.
• Resource and location discovery systems address
  privacy issues by giving resources and users
  control over how much to reveal.
• Devices use multiple communication protocols.
  Vertical handoffs among these protocols.
• Challenges
• Hardware must become adaptable, scalable,
  efficient and computationally powerful.
• Software and protocols must become adaptable and
  flexible.

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UIUC ActiveSpace

• NSF funding. Mobicom 99.
• Physical spaces become interactive systems, or in
  other terms, Active Spaces.
• A middleware operating system (Gaia OS ) that
  manages the resources contained in an Active
  Space.
• User entering an Active Space should not require
  a user login yet users must be authenticated and
  user Spaces must be secure.

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ActiveSpaces Components

• Components
• Adaptive communication substrate multiple
  communication channels and vertical handoffs.
• Unified object bus provides a uniform method for
  devices to communicate. Dynamic manipulation of
  components running on a network (creation,
  destruction, dependency resolver).
• Gaia OS services QoS-Aware Resource Management,
  Security Service, Sensing Service, Automatic
  Configuration Service and Rendering Service

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UCLA MUSE

• MUSE is a middleware architecture for sensor
  smart spaces.
• Concentrates on issue of "Sensing services"
  (detection of an event or condition in the
  environment) in smart spaces.
• Provides services which satisfy certain required
  qualities. E.g. find the "best" printer.
• Characterize the "quality of service". E.g. for
  printer what is good QoS-speed, quality, etc.
• Used Java for portability and Jini for service
  discovery.

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Goals and Status

• Goals of MUSE
• Develop API for building and accessing services.
• Construct algorithms for optimal usage of device
  within their resource constraints.
• Memory component to store the smart spaces data.
• Automatically adding new sensor devices.
• Current Implementation
• A skeleton API to build sensor services and allow
  for consumers to query sensors for information.
• A prototype implementation of MIRA, a persistent
  memory component for sensor smart spaces.
• A sample sensor smart space using the MUSE
  infrastructure.

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UW ProtoLano

• Darpa and Intel.
• Portolano charts are the seacoast charts created
  by Portuguese sailors of the 14th and 15th
  centuries. Led to discovery of the New World.
• Invisible Computing the entire infrastructure
  and the devices must be as invisible as possible,
  requiring little or no configuration and
  performing reliably and predictably.(E.g. file
  format or connectivity issues)
• Agents operating autonomously execute user
  intentions (visual and speech) and not on
  users explicit commands accepted by keyboards
  or mice.

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Portolano

• Example scheduling agent automatically provides
  available data.
• Multiple interfaces have to be managed (PDA,
  regular display). Use XML for document
  interchange which leaves presentation to clients.
• To handle intermittent connections, data may find
  services on its own for route discovery. Code in
  data executed at major nodes. Low-power modes.
• Allowed to use services for which have
  permissions. Kerberos, Ipsec and signatures.

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Links

• MIT Oxygen http//oxygen.lcs.mit.edu/
• HP CoolTown http//www.cooltown.hp.com/
• UW Portolano http//portolano.cs.washington.edu/
• MS EasyLiving http//www.research.microsoft.co
  m/easyliving/
• GaTech eClass http//www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/
• Berkeley Ninja http//ninja.cs.berkeley.edu
• UMBC Centaurus http//research.ebiquity.org/centa
  urus/
• UIUC ActiveSpaces http//choices.cs.uiuc.edu/Acti
  veSpaces/
• UCLA MUSE http//mmsl.cs.ucla.edu/muse/