Diogo Gomes

Heterogeneous Signaling Framework for End-to-End QoS Support in Next Generation Networks

Next generation wireless communication systems aim to handle diverse types of services across different types of access technologies in a seamless way. This paper proposes a next generation network architecture and evaluates possible associated signaling strategies, focusing in network-level QoS support aspects. The scenarios handled cover terminal-initiated signaling, network controlled signaling, and application-provider controlled signaling. Possible message sequence charts associated with these scenarios are presented and discussed. The paper compares the relative merits of each approach and concludes that the optimum QoS signaling solution depends on the QoS models that will be used, which are directly related to the business models chosen by the operators.

XMPP based Context Management Architecture

In recent years several authors and projects have addressed the need for an architecture for collecting and managing context information. Most of the approaches have either been purely based in middlewares unable to address the heterogeneity of components and services platforms, or have been built around Web based technologies that are unable to cope with the realtime and reactiveness requirements that many context-aware use cases have. In this paper the authors propose a new Context Management Architecture able to solve these problems. Furthermore, this architecture, exploring the XMPP protocol, can be used as the basis for new developments in this area.

The business of things architecture

A revolution is happening that is triggered by a brave new world made by interconnected devices. The internet of things is already a reality that is creating new business opportunities across different industrial sectors. Communication service providers have a major opportunity to shape this reality by leading this transformation. For that, they need to evolve their existing architectures to enable a flexible creation of advanced services over distributed networks, interconnecting heterogeneous sensors and actuators. This paper presents an approach for telecoms to take advantage of the upcoming machine-to-machine markets and defines an advanced architecture able to withstand the demands of a new plethora of evermore clever and useful services. Copyright

MINDiT: A framework for media independent access to things

Deploying smart environments often implies a plethora of co-existing devices and services, each with their own set of features, requirements and interfacing characteristics. These intricate scenarios are further exacerbated when such devices are coupled with networking capabilities, globalizing their interaction opportunities to create the so-called Internet of Things. In such interconnected heterogeneous environments, the joint operation of entities requires a flexible framework that enables and simplifies interfacing between elements. In this paper, we propose MINDiT, a framework that provides a common abstract interface towards the communication support with different entities. It incorporates cross-layer mechanisms inspired on the existing IEEE 802.21 technology, suitably modified to facilitate and optimize deployment in scenarios featuring both high-level, and low-powered network-restricted entities. MINDiT was validated through a prototype built over an open-source IEEE 802.21 implementation. We further compared its signaling impact against other solutions, and evaluated its performance over a smart environment featuring a multimedia scenario with multiple devices and services.

Quasi-omniscient Networks: Scenarios on Context Capturing and New Services Through Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper addresses future scenarios for the telecommunications field, addressing the impact of three important research trends in computer networks: Context, Sensors and Wireless Networks. The proposed scenarios clearly highlight the possible synergies between the defined areas, and describe the role of Users and Network Operators in order to achieve the described goals. The potential danger of an over-encompassing network is identified, with a brief discussion on the challenges associated to the implementation of such a knowledge-aware communications network. The paper finalizes presenting a classification on the typical scenarios to be expected, and highlighting the associated challenges. It also presents a proposal on a scalable network infrastructure for Context processing.

Context storage for M2M scenarios

As the number of environmental sensors grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage, store and process all these sources of information. Several context representation schemes try to standardize this information, however none of them have been widely adopted. Instead of proposing yet another context representation scheme, we discuss efficient ways to deal with this diversity of representation schemes. We defined the basic requirements for flexible context storage systems, proposed an implementation and compared our implementation against two other approaches. Our solution provides more value than the remaining solutions without suffering a significant decrease in performance.

Scalable semantic aware context storage

In recent years the Internet has grown by incorporating billions of small devices, collecting real-world information and distributing it though various systems. As the number of such devices grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage all these new information sources. Several context representation schemes have tried to standardize this information, however none of them have been widely adopted. Instead of proposing yet another context representation scheme, we discuss an efficient way to deal with this diversity of representation schemes. We define the basic requirements for context storage systems, analyse context organizations models and propose a new context storage solution. Our solution implements an organizational model that improves scalability, semantic extraction and minimizes semantic ambiguity.

AMazING – Advanced Mobile wIreless playGrouNd

We describe a wireless testbed composed by 24 wireless nodes that can be used to perform a broad range of studies in the area of next generation networks. This paper addresses the difficulties and constrains faced by the authors throughout the deployment process of such testbed. Flexibility and controllability were key concerns driving the testbed design. The testbed can be remotely managed through a series of remotely accessible web services performing low-level management. Validation results are presented, showing the interference levels of the testbed as well as its maximum throughput capabilities.

On the application of contextual IoT service discovery in Information Centric Networks

The continuous flow of technological developments in communications and electronic industries has led to the growing expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT). By leveraging the capabilities of smart networked devices and integrating them into existing industrial, leisure and communication applications, the IoT is expected to positively impact both economy and society, reducing the gap between the physical and digital worlds. Therefore, several efforts have been dedicated to the development of networking solutions addressing the diversity of challenges associated with such a vision. In this context, the integration of Information Centric Networking (ICN) concepts into the core of IoT is a research area gaining momentum and involving both research and industry actors. The massive amount of heterogeneous devices, as well as the data they produce, is a significant challenge for a wide-scale adoption of the IoT. In this paper we propose a service discovery mechanism, based on Named Data Networking (NDN), that leverages the use of a semantic matching mechanism for achieving a flexible discovery process. The development of appropriate service discovery mechanisms enriched with semantic capabilities for understanding and processing context information is a key feature for turning raw data into useful knowledge and ensuring the interoperability among different devices and applications. We assessed the performance of our solution through the implementation and deployment of a proof-of-concept prototype. Obtained results illustrate the potential of integrating semantic and ICN mechanisms to enable a flexible service discovery in IoT scenarios.

Semantic Features for Context Organization

In recent years the technological world has grown by incorporating billions of small sensing devices, collecting and sharing real-world information. As the number of such devices grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage all these new information sources. There is no uniform way to share, process and understand context information. In previous publications we discussed efficient ways to organize context information that is independent of structure and representation. However, our previous solution suffers from semantic sensitivity. In this paper we review semantic methods that can be used to minimize this issue, and propose an unsupervised semantic similarity solution that combines distributional profiles with public web services. Our solution was evaluated against Miller-Charles dataset, achieving a correlation of 0.6.