Ioannis Priggouris

Extensible platform for location based services provisioning

Location based services can be considered as the most rapidly expanding field of the mobile communications sector. The proliferation of the mobile/wireless internet, the constantly increasing use of handheld, mobile devices and position tracking technologies and the emergence of mobile computing, prepared the grounds for the introduction of this new type of services with impressively large application domain and use range. Prompted by the avalanche of technology advances in the aforementioned areas in this paper we present a generic platform for delivering location based services (LBS). The platform features a modular architecture, which can be easily extended with additional functionality. The paper focuses on the technical specifications, the design and the prototype implementation of the platforms kernel, which is responsible for coordinating communication with various pluggable components in order to provide the full range of operations involved in the LBS delivery chain (i.e., from initial deployment to invocation, execution and delivery of results). Issues such as scalability, efficiency, openness, portability and security are also considered in the design of the platform.

Demo: PoLoS: integrated platform for location based services

The PoLoS platform, implemented in the context of the European Union Information Society Technologies (IST) program, focuses on the development, deployment and provision of services and consolidates several technologies (and operation schemes) of the Location Based Services world under a single framework. The demonstration aims to provide an operational overview of the PoLoS platform and highlight the benefits the platform brings in a large-scale, competitive and fast-changing environment.

Using XML and related standards to support Location Based Services

Location Based Services can be considered as the most rapidly expanding field of the mobile communications sector. The proliferation of the mobile/wireless Internet, the constantly increasing use of handheld, mobile devices and positioning technologies and the emergence of mobile computing, prepared the grounds for the introduction of this new type of services with impressively large application domain and use range. The combination of position fixing mechanisms with location-dependent, georgraphical information, can offer truly customized personal communication services through the mobile phone or other type of devices. Web Services have emerged as a set of open standards and gained a lot of momentum during the recent past. Many software vendors are announcing Web Service initiatives and adoption in their products. Many organizations are involved in the refinement of Web Service standards. Moreover, XML has become the de facto standard for data interchange on the Web and its emergence is having an enormous impact on Web development. Motivated by the technology advances in the aforementioned areas in this paper we discuss the exploitation of Web Services and XML to build a generic platform for delivering Location Based Services (LBS) to the nomadic user.

A generic framework for Location-Based Services (LBS) provisioning

Location Based Services can be considered as one of the most rapidly expanding fields of the mobile communications sector, with an impressively large application range. The proliferation of mobile/wireless Internet and mobile computing, and the constantly increasing use of handheld, mobile devices and position tracking technologies prepared the grounds for the introduction of this new type of services. The combination of position fixing mechanisms with location-dependent, geographical information, can offer truly customized personal communication services through the mobile phone or other type of devices. Prompted by the avalanche of technology advances in the aforementioned areas in this paper we present an integrated platform for delivering Location Based Services (LBS). The platform covers the full life cycle of a LBS starting from the specification of the service, covering issues like the deployment and maintenance of services, the service invocation and the final delivery of the produced results to the invoking user. A prototype implementation of the discussed platform was developed and used to perform a series of trial services, with the purpose of demonstrating the pursued functionality.

A scheduling framework for enterprise services

Application-level scheduling is a common process in the enterprise domain, but in order to be productive it should be time-effective, interoperable and reliable. In this paper we present the design and implementation aspects of a modular scheduling solution, which aims to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements. The proposed solution constitutes an integral part of an existing service provisioning platform targeted to the location based services (LBS) domain; however application to other service-oriented architectures is also possible. A careful design process is followed in order to identify the schedulers functional subsystems and the relationships between them. The implementation is based on the J2EE framework, thus guaranteeing independence from underlying technologies and applicability in enterprise environments. The high quality and scalability of the scheduler is also validated through an intensive performance analysis.

Open Middleware Architecture for the LBS Domain

The combination of position fixing mechanisms with location-dependent, geographical information can offer truly customized personal communication services through the mobile phone or other types of devices. Prompted by the avalanche of technology advances in the aforementioned areas, in this article we present a generic framework for delivering location-based services (LBS). The framework is capable of providing the full functionality required for delivering LBS, starting from the specification of the service, and covering issues like the deployment and maintenance of services, the service invocation and the final delivery of the produced results to the calling user. The main focus of the article is on the technical specification, the design, and the functionality of the framework. However, with the purpose of assessing the proposed architecture, a prototype implementation based on the discussed specifications was built and its performance was evaluated using a series of pilot services.

A Generic and Scalable IoT Data Fusion Infrastructure

Applications in the IoT domain are in need of information coming from many different sources. To mitigate the processing overhead for increased volumes of raw data (seen at the application layer) on vast pervasive networks (a significant pillar of 5G networks), we introduce a customizable middleware platform. Such platform allows the treatment of incoming data flows through complex, yet fully specifiable/controllable data processing workflows. The derivation of new information through this high level processing task is termed data fusion, hence, the presented architecture is named “Fusion Box”. The middleware platform is customizable through a Domain Specific Language that allows the domain (and not the IT) expert to easily specify the needed processing and automatically transform such specification to executable workflows. The coupling between the Domain Specific Language and the Fusion Box is based on the concept of contextors, a versatile processing unit that can be instantiated and managed in many different ways as needs dictate.

A distributable security management architecture for enterprise systems spanning multiple security domains

Administering security in modern enterprise systems may prove an extremely complex task. Their large scale and dynamic nature are the main factors that contribute to this fact. A robust and flexible model is needed in order to guarantee both the easy management of security information and the efficient implementation of security mechanisms. In this paper, we present the foundations and the prototypical implementation of a new access control framework. The framework is mainly targeted to highly dynamic, large enterprise systems (e.g., service provisioning platforms, enterprise portals etc.), which contain various independent functional entities. Significant advantages gained from the application of the designated framework in such systems are epitomized in the easiness of managing access to their hosted resources (e.g., services) and the possibility of applying distributable management schemes for achieving it. The proposed framework allows for multi-level access control through the support of both role-based and user-based access control schemes. Discussion is structured in three distinct areas: the formal model of the proposed framework, the data model for supporting its operation, and the presentation of a prototypical implementation. The development of the framework is based on open technologies like XML, java and Directory Services. At the last part of the paper the results of a performance assessment are presented, aiming to quantify the delay overhead, imposed by the application of the new framework in a real system.

A component-based scheduling architecture for the enterprise domain

The scheduling paradigm offers an alternative execution model for services and applications, which is of particular interest for the enterprise domain. Therefore, task scheduling is considered as an integral part of many contemporary information systems and service platforms. In this paper we present, the architectural aspects of an integrated scheduling framework, targeted to the mobile applications market along with an implementation prototype, which was also developed with the purpose of demonstrating its capabilities and identifying its limitations