Extending Instant Messaging to Provide Pervasive Personal Communication

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Extending Instant Messaging to Provide Pervasive
Personal Communication

• Wei Li, Fredrik Kilander and Carl Gustaf Jansson
• liwei, fk, calle_at_dsv.su.se
• Department of Computer and Systems Sciences
• Stockholm University/Swedish Royal Institute of
  Technology

Orange County, California, September 17
FUMCA 2006
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The Evolution of Internet-based Personal
Communication

• E-mail (convenient and economical)
• Instant Messaging (IM)
• Real-time communication
• User status presentation (auto-captured presence)
• Lively emotion expression (Smileys)
• Animation, audio and video features
• More functions are expected, e.g., interfacing
  home appliances, E-Business etc.
• IM will probably become an dominant feature for
  future personal communication.

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Problems with the Existing IM Systems

• Interoperability
• Mobility Support
• Singular online instance (per account)
• No adaptation support
• Changing bandwidth (e.g., presence with no
  messages)
• Privacy and Security
• IM server can know everything (comm. address,
  parties and even the content).
• Other problems
• NAT
• Breakdowns

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Rethink the IM Services

• Main Purpose to stay in contact with family
  members, friends and colleagues.
• The main tasks of IM Servers
• A directory service
• User authentication
• Address resolution
• Messaging routing
• No need to be dependent on a 3rd party server as
  all other works are handled by the users
  computers already.
• A user controllable server is a better solution
  (similar to hosting a personal web server).

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A Personal Communication System Architecture
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Peer-to-Peer Buddy Network
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Constructing the Personal Communication System

• SIP SIMPLE based communication PCS (an extended
  SIP proxy using NIST JAIN-SIP)
• Various SIP clients can be used as client
  applications
• PCS also acts as a bridge to different IM
  networks

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PCS Implementation

• Problems Solving related to SIP
• Interoperability
• NAT Traverse
• Media Format Compatibility
• Providing Value-added Features
• Transparent Cross-Network Access
• Location Enhanced User Presence
• Communication Delegation
• Pervasive Contact to Buddies
• Other Useful Features
• Remote Monitoring
• Combining Different Clients

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Location Enhanced Presence Seen by Buddies from
Different IM Networks
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Map Enhanced User Location Presence
(a) Google Satellite Map Text My Home! (extra 4
map links) Comviq Cells 16618, 16619
(b) Map with Multimap.com
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Conclusion and Future Work

• Future mobile computing applications can be
  integrated into IM-based personal communication
  systems
• Open standard should be used
• User should have full control of his/her personal
  information as well as the communication.
• Future Work
• Enable context-awareness
• Performance evaluation mobile settings
• Resource consumption concerns
• Adaptive context acquisition, communication

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Thanks Questions?