The Web Operating System Towards Wide Area Ubiquitous Computing

1
The Web Operating System Towards Wide Area
Ubiquitous Computing

• Joint work of
• P. Kropf, G. Babin, (University of Laval,
  Canada)J. Plaice (University of Sydney,
  Australia)H. Unger (University of Rostock,
  Germany)A. Mikler (University of North Texas,
  USA) S. Schubiger (University of Fribourg,
  Switzerland)O. Krone (Swisscom CT, Switzerland)

2
Overview

• Motivation
• The WOS Approach
• Resources
• Warehouses
• Eductive Engine
• WOSNode, WOSpace
• Web Components (WebComs)
• Current Research Issues
• Related, and Future Work, Conclusion

3
Motivation

• Success of the WWW is tremendous
• Why not using WWW as platform for ubiquitous
  computing ?
• Today resources found on the Web are information
  only interaction is limited
• Tomorrow use WEB as a Service Space The
  network is the computer

4
Motivation (cont.)
5
Motivation (cont.)

• Network Applications
• WWW, email, video
• Computational Applications
• number crunching, distributed simulation
• Virtual Entities
• classrooms, companies
• Knowledge based Applications
• data mining, databases
• Real Time Applications
• process control real-time multimedia

6
The WOS Approach

• 5 Universities involved Laval, Rostock, Texas,
  Sydney, Fribourg
• Operating System for the Web
• Runs on top of existing OS, Java
• Bringing the resource-richness of the Web to the
  user
• Bringing the computational potential of the Web
  to the user
• Distributed and versioned

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Web Operating System - Warehouses

• Resource database
• Resource management
• Resource cache
• Passive Warehouses
• storage for service information
• information out of date, must be replaced
• Active Warehouses
• information obtained from which other warehouse
• Adaptive Warehouses
• user profiles and access statistics update of
  information

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Web Operating System - Resources

• Versioned Services
• Applications
• Platforms
• Hardware

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Web Operating System - Eductive Engines

• Provides services using a warehouse
• Reactive system
• Responds to requests
• Eduction (Oxford English Dictionary)
• The action of drawing forth, eliciting,
  or developing from a state of latent,
  rudimentary, or potential existence the
  action of educing (principles, results or
  calculations) from the data.

?
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Web Operating System - WOS Node
Eductive engine Warehouse
?
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Web Operating System - WOSNet
Network of WOS Nodes

• Eductive engine
• Warehouse

12
Web Operating System - Operation
13
Web Operating System - Operation
?
14
Web Operating System - Operation
?
?
15
Web Operating System - Operation
?
?
?
?
?
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WebComponents (WebComs)

• Resource Representation Interaction Schubiger,
  Krone
• Based on data flow networks

semantic
file name path content c-source
hello.c

?
semantic
file name path content os architecture
hello.exe
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WebComs (cont.)

• Attribute schemes
• capture real world representations (concepts)
  e.g. files, programs, source-code,
• are constructed
• by description
• set operations (union, intersection,)
• an attribute scheme is either
• implicit
• native
• relation based on other attributes

file name path content c-source
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WebComs (cont.)

• Passive WebComs
• representations for non-executable resources
• passive WebComs have an attribute scheme
• Active WebComs
• representations for executable resources
• active WebComs are passive WebComs with an action
• an action has two sets of plugs
• input plugs
• output plugs
• each plug has an associated attribute scheme

hello.c
content semantic c-source
compile
content semantic o-file

debug
optimized
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WebComs (cont.)
compile
semantic

semantic
semantic
debug
hello.c
optimized

?
semantic
hello.exe
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WebComs (cont.)
compile
semantic

semantic
semantic
true
debug
hello.c
false
optimized

link
semantic
semantic

semantic
hello.exe
name
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WebComs (cont.)
Attribute scheme of a plug has to be equal to
attribute scheme of the other plug
The attribute scheme of the plug has to be a
subset of the attribute scheme of the passive
WebCom
Ê
content semantic c-source
compile
content semantic o-file

debug
optimized
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WebComs (cont.)
Warehouses
WebComs




hello
link
hello.c
compile
ServicesResources
gcc
ld
hello

• Example Unified Messaging
• input WebCom message
• output WebCom desired format of the message

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Current Research Issues

• WOS Node Architecture Unger
• node is client
• and server

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Current Research Issues (cont.)

• Communication Protocols Babin, Kropf, Unger
• Two level communication protocol
• discovery/location protocol (WOSRP) location of
  specific WOS nodes
• generic Service Protocol (WOSP)
• versioned protocol bind node to
  appropriate instance of WOSP analyzer
• setup, execution, query commands

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Current Research Issues (cont.)

• Service Search Unger, Kropf, Babin, Boehme
• information about local and remote services
  stored in WOS node
• broadcast or serial chain mechanism, search trees
• combination of both theoretical research
  performed 6-10 chainsin parallel result in
  goodresponse time

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Research Issues (cont.)

• Fault Tolerance Babin, Kropf, Unger
• WOS server cannot serve the request after
  receiving it
• Network brake downs
• WOS nodes/machines crash
• Acknowledge protocol developedreceive
  acknowledgment(RACK)termination
  acknowledgment(TACK)

MSG
MSG
t
t
RACK
MSG
RACK
MSG
RACK
((n-i-2)(n-i-2)2/n)t
t
RACK
TACK
TACK
TACK
node i-1
node i
node n-1
node n
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Current Research Issues (cont.)

• Load Management Unger, Kropf, Plaice
• global online resource prediction impossible
• transmission time data might be outdated upon
  arrival
• reaction in case of failure of nodes
• off line learning and adaptation techniques
  cannot be used
• user manager statistical data of processes
  started by a specific user
• machine manager arranging allocation of local
  resources

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Current Research Issues (cont.)

• Resource Representation Interaction Krone,
  Schubiger
• how can resources be manipulated and shareduse
  desktop metaphor for explicitmanipulation
  WebRes based on RMI introduced novel
  technique (dynamic linking) for runtime
  linking of objectsimplicit through (WebComs)
  data-flow driven

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Current Research Issues (cont.)
WebRes resource set user interface
resource servers
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Current Research Issues (cont.)

• Coordination Issues (use Linda as
  inspiration)Manifold, STL, ...
• Negotiation Techniquesfor e-commerce
• Mobile Agent Technology
• Graphical User Interface
• Security Issues (!)
• Cost Model for Resources

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Related Work

• Inferno (Lucent Technologies)
• IBMs T-Spaces
• Berkeleys WebOS (part of NOW)
• SuperWeb and Charlotte
• Microsofts Millennium project
• and of course SUNs Jini

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Related Work (cont.)
Lookup Service
(1) registration
(2) lookup
Service ObjectService Attributes
Service Provider
Client
(3) use
Service ObjectService Attributes
Service Object
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Related Work (cont.)

• Jini
• services as resource encapsulation
• lookup service as resource directory
• leasing for access control
• events for notification
• based on JavaSpaces (Linda variant)
• WOS
• warehouses with versioned services
• WOS federations are dynamically and
  autonomously created
• language independent (protocol)

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Future Work

• Extend WebRes to be used with WebComs
• Definition of the network language
• Graphical network builder
• Interactive/automated resource selection
  (Agents/Web robots)
• Develop adapters for legacy software (CORBA)
• Validate Service Search Techniques
• Further investigate CORBA and Jini and her
  friends
• Look at Security Aspects
• Consolidation of already developed prototypes

35
Conclusion

• Presented the WOS effort, ongoing research
  project, 5 Universities
• Goals
• develop methods, frameworks for future
  interconnected systems
• contribute to future global information
  infrastructure
• Both industry and academia is interested
• Version 1.0 is on its way
• Conference Web Communities, June 2000,
  University of Laval
• Info http//paradis.ift.ulaval.ca/projects/wos