Elsevier

Computer Networks

Volume 35, Issue 4, March 2001, Pages 411-428
Computer Networks

DEAPspace – Transient ad hoc networking of pervasive devices

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1389-1286(00)00184-5Get rights and content

Abstract

The rapid spreading of mobile computerized devices marks the beginning of a new computing paradigm characterized by ad hoc networking and spontaneous interaction, taking place transparently to the human user. The DEAPspace project described in this paper aims at providing a framework for interconnecting pervasive devices over a wireless medium. It supports the development of new proximity-based collective distributed applications. In this paper we discuss the motivation of the project and describe possible new application scenarios from which requirements for both the supporting framework and the underlying wireless medium are derived. Central research issues such as a new push-model-based approach to fast and resource efficient service discovery, and encoding and match-making of compact service descriptions, are elaborated in more detail. The paper also describes some related work and concludes with a critical review of existing wireless communication technologies, followed by a description of the current state of our project and an outlook on future research directions.

Section snippets

A world of connected devices

Most of the things we deal with in our day-to-day life are invisible from a computer science point of view – they either do not even contain a microprocessor or they do not offer an interface to the outside world, let alone communicate with other devices. Nevertheless, we already are surrounded by a host of devices containing a microprocessor of some sort. Moreover, we increasingly encounter devices that not only contain an embedded controller or system but in addition provide an interface for

Application scenarios

As a basis for discussion we present three application scenarios. The first scenario illustrates a multidevice application where several devices render one virtual application. The second scenario is centered around a personal information management (PIM) application; here we use DEAPspace technology to hide data synchronization. The third and last scenario illustrates a context-aware application.

The first scenario describes a multidevice application. Alice wears a digital wristwatch, carries

Requirements, challenges, and goals

Using these scenarios we can extract a set of features that define the scope of our DEAPspace work. A key feature is that applications can span multiple information appliances; that is, they are distributed. Moreover, we target a wide range of appliances: from small devices (such as a wristwatch) to large devices (such as the elevator in the airport scenario); from devices designed to accomplish a single function particularly well to devices that combine multiple functions in one box –

DEAPspace service model

The DEAPspace service usage model is role based. An entity providing a service that can be utilized by other requesting entities acts as a provider. Conversely, the entity requesting the provision of a service is called a requester. To provide its service, a provider in turn can act as a requester making use of other services.

DEAPspace forms a distributed system; that is, requesters and providers can live on physically separate hosting devices. In terms of service usage, however, the location

Compact service description

Service advertising and selection depend directly on the service description format. This is important in two aspects:

  • 1.

    On the service provider side, the service description format determines the precision for services advertisements.

  • 2.

    On the requester side, the service description format determines the selection capabilities for choosing a matching service offer.

When a provider advertises its services, descriptions of the services are encoded for distribution to potential users. A requester

DEAPspace service discovery

Two assumptions characterize the bulk of existing service discovery protocols: that some stable node exists on which a central server can be installed, and that low round-trip times can usually be expected. Both of these assumptions are no longer valid in our target environment, thus a new protocol is needed.

A centralized system, such as DHCP [5] or Jini [17], provides a simple and robust mechanism for service lookup (once the server has been located). In wired networks, it is reasonable to

Wireless communication platforms

DEAPspace applications are networked applications executing across two or more nodes connected via wireless communication links. In Section 2 we identified a set of characteristics of DEAPspace applications that have profound implications on the underlying wireless communications infrastructure.

As our research focus has been on networking protocols and algorithms rather than the design of a new wireless technology, we have investigated a number of candidate technologies for their suitability

Related research work

The core of our work revolves around prompt and efficient service discovery in transient ad hoc networks of pervasive devices. Service discovery is not a radical new topic. Several projects have addressed the problem of discovering or locating resources and services in a network. Best known approaches are probably Sun's Jini [16], [17] and the Microsoft-driven Universal Plug and Play (UPNP) project [4], others are the IETF's Service Lookup Protocol (SLP) [14], the Salutation consortium [3], and

Summary and outlook

Ad hoc networking and spontaneous interaction between small and mobile devices over wireless connections will be the key features of new pervasive applications which we can expect to become real over the next few years. The DEAPspace project presented in this paper is positioned as a first step towards this goal. Starting from a description of new application scenarios, we have derived the most important requirements to be met by a framework supporting the development of pervasive applications.

Reto Hermann obtained the Diploma in Electrical Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, in 1983. Subsequently, he joined the IBM Research Division, Zurich Research Laboratory, as research staff member. From 1983 to 1992 he worked in the area of signal processing for digital magnetic recording systems. Since 1993 his research focus has moved to computer science where he has done work in mobile computing and smart card technology. His present technical interests are

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Reto Hermann obtained the Diploma in Electrical Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, in 1983. Subsequently, he joined the IBM Research Division, Zurich Research Laboratory, as research staff member. From 1983 to 1992 he worked in the area of signal processing for digital magnetic recording systems. Since 1993 his research focus has moved to computer science where he has done work in mobile computing and smart card technology. His present technical interests are pervasive computing, wireless personal area networking and mobile internet technologies. He is a member of the IEEE and IEEE Communications Society.

Dirk Husemann joined IBM's Research Division in 1996 and has since then been working on pervasive computing projects. Currently he is involved in the DEAPspace project as well as in datacasting over digital audio broadcast channels. He received both an MS (Diploma, 1991) and a Ph.D. (Dr.-Ing., 1995) in Computer Science from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Husemann is a member of the IEEE, IEEE Computer, USENIX, TUG, and the German GI.

Michael Moser received both his Diploma in Electrical Engineering and his Ph.D. in Technical Sciences from the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He is a research staff member with the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, where he is currently involved in various pervasive computing projects. His research interests include distributed and intermittently connected systems, advanced user interfaces for portable devices as well as program design observation and execution monitoring tools.

Michael Nidd is currently writing his Ph.D. dissertation on the topic of service discovery in transient ad hoc wireless networks, associated jointly with Institut Eurécom and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), and working at the IBM Research Zurich Laboratory. He holds BMath and MMath degrees in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo.

Christian Rohner is working towards his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, from where he also received a Diploma in Electrical Engineering in 1997. He is doing his work at the IBM Research Zürich Laboratory. His research interests include security and communication issues in ad hoc networking.

Andreas Schade joined the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in 1994 where he currently is part of the pervasive computing group. His research interests include distributed systems, applications and their management. He holds a diploma degree (Dipl.-Inf., 1994) and a doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat., 1998) in Computer Science, both from Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany.

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