George Orphanos

A generic network management architecture targeted to support home automation networks and home Internet connectivity

This paper proposes a generic network management architecture targeted to support home automation networks and home Internet connectivity for the purpose of control and monitoring. The core of the architecture is a new management protocol residing at the OSI application layer. The paper is structured as follows: state-of-the-art and main objective are primarily presented, and then the proposed architecture and protocol are detailed. Finally, conclusions and open issues are highlighted.

An integrated application/service platform to support multimedia applications

This paper describes a communication support system for multimedia applications relying on the development of an integrated application/service platform. The proposed architecture includes a service platform that provides communication services and their management to multimedia applications and an application platform that provides end-point application services. The former is implemented via an interface re siding at OSI Presentation Service Access Point (PSAP) and the latter via an interface residing at OSI Application Service Access Point (ASAP). It is anticipated that the combination of the proposed integrated application/service platform will ensure the interoperability among existing and future multimedia applications within the broadband environment. It is widely accepted that the key requirement for a multimedia application is the availability of a distributed multimedia environment. Multimedia applications could be distinguished as interactive or non-interactive such as conferencing and video-on-demand, respectively, and impose specific requirements to be met, i.e. synchronization of isochronous streams, end-to-end delay constraints and multicast transmissions. In this paper we propose an enhanced protocol/service structure that overcomes the weaknesses of the conventional OSI Reference Model. The result of this approach is an application/service platform that provides a QoS support throughout all OSI upper layers. Finally, adaptations of OSI elements are proposed.<<ETX>>

Java and Jini technologies as a vehicle to construct a unified control engineering tool and extend the real time aspects of a control network

This paper proposes a new approach to address the issues of isolation and lack of homogeneity of control network segments located within dispersed industrial plants, particularly from the control systems engineers point of view. One can anticipate that Java and Jini technologies will contribute to the promotion of convergence with respect to other current approaches, like function block and device descriptions. Furthermore, this practice will lead to the conveyance of the natural characteristics of control networks, i.e. deterministic transmissions, to the IP-based technology, leading to the transparent bridging of heterogeneous control networks through a QoS adaptable and scalable IP data pipe. In this paper, the authors focus on the development of a multifunctional-networking device (MFND), acting both as an application gateway and a control network to IP router and on the creation of a unified environment by overcoming the lack of interoperability between fieldbuses.

Proposed teleworking platform for workstations supporting multimedia medical applications

Teleworking refers to the usage of telecommunication facilities to improve human to human collaboration and enhance performance of work. This paper focuses on the way teleworking affects medicine. In particular, a teleworking platform is proposed to support multimedia medical applications embedded into RISC-based workstations. In order to support the teleworking platform, current commercially available products have to be taken into consideration and a range of new technologies need to be developed and made available. In this paper, we put emphasis on a RISC-based workstation, UNIXTM operating system, communication protocols capable to support the teleworking platform, and ISDN network capabilities.

MACSE: A Generic Connection Establishment Protocol for Multimedia Communication Residing at the OSI Application Layer

The multiple association control service element (MACSE) described in this work is a new connection establishment protocol for the application layer of the OSI reference model (OSIRM). The objective of the protocol is efficient establishment and control of multimedia associations among multiple spatially dispersed users. MACSE defines a new OSI service to support the communication requirements of multimedia applications so as to shift the burden of setting-up a complex call to a protocol entity, instead of the application developer. The MACSE protocol enhances the OSIRM by introducing careful service definition, service primitives and relevant parameters, as well as a non-monolithic protocol specification. The protocol defines procedures for the negotiation and confirmation of quality of service (QoS) per association while it forms the core of a proposed architectural model which provides a coherent treatment of QoS across all layers of the OSIRM and reduces the complexity of it. Out-of-band, rather than in-band, signalling at the application layer and multi-target associations are introduced and analysed, in contrast to the structure of the well-known OSI association control service element (ACSE) protocol. Moreover, ACSE can be considered a particular case of MACSE.

Communication software for physicians' workstations supporting medical imaging services

This paper describes a software communication architecture for medical imaging services. This work aims to provide to the physician the communication facilities to access and track a patients record or to retrieve medical images from a remote database. The proposed architecture is comprised of a communication protocol and an application programming interface (API). The implemented protocol, namely the Telemedicine Network Services (TNS) protocol, has been designed in agreement with Open System Interconnection (OSI) upper layer protocols already standardized. Based on this concept an OSI-like interface has been developed capable of providing application services to the application developer, and thus facilitating the writing of medical application. TNS protocol has been implemented on top of TCP/IP communication protocols, by implementing OSI presentation and application services on top of the Transport Service Access Point (TSAP) which is provided by the socket abstraction on top of the TCP.