paraimpu: a social tool for the web of things @ wot2011

Antonio Pintus - [email protected] Davide Carboni - [email protected] Andrea Piras - [email protected]

The anatomy of a large scale Social Web for Internet enabled Object

Antonio Pintus Davide Carboni Andrea Piras

CRS4

WoT 2011 - June 2011 - San Francisco, CA, USA

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mailto:[email protected]






Antonio Pintus, Davide Carboni, Andrea Piras WoT2011 - June 2011- San Francisco, CA, USA

Who, where...

• Antonio Pintus and Davide Carboni and Andrea Piras

• ICT - LBS Group @ CRS4, an interdisciplinary applied research center based in Pula (Cagliari), SARDINIA, Italy

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The Web of Things

• In the Web of Things (WoT) vision, things are connected to a pervasive wireless/wired network and can communicate with other objects and services using HTTP-based protocols

• Everyday surrounding objects (phones, domestic appliances, advertisement billboards, musical instruments,... ) become nodes of the WoT

• Web-enabled objects are available on the market just now!

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Antonio Pintus, Davide Carboni, Andrea Piras WoT2011 - June 2011- San Francisco, CA, USA 4

part #1

Our Vision

Ph. http://www.flickr.com/photos/salendron/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/salendron/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/salendron/


Vision: a Social Web of Things /1

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#1: connecting Things to the Web must be simple

Ph. Nigel Marshall, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nige_mar/

- simple to “plug”- simple to con!gure- simple to manage- Web-based UX

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nige_mar/




• #2: not only “physical” Things but also “virtual” ones–social networks, Web sites, feeds, APIs, ...

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#3: interconnecting Things in the Web must be simple

- including “physical” and “virtual” Things

- data adapting / transformation

Ph. John Thurm, http://www.flickr.com/photos/thurm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thurm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thurm



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Ph. Nigel Marshall, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nige_mar/

#4: Social /1: existing social networks become connectable Things

- Authentication facilities, friends/contacts import





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Ph. Ryan Roberts http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanr

#5: Social /2: Share your Things with friends!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanr


Things Sharing

– Things sharing:

• it should be possible to share a Thing with friends and let them use it in their connections (according to a de!ned policy: public, open, moderated)

• sharing objects goes toward a “collaborative consumption” as shaped by the authors of the book What’s mine is yours*

* What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers . Harperbusiness, http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/

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http://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Botsman/e/B003KTTN1K/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

http://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Botsman/e/B003KTTN1K/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

http://www.amazon.com/Roo-Rogers/e/B003WLZ6EE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_2

http://www.amazon.com/Roo-Rogers/e/B003WLZ6EE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_2

http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/

http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/


Ph. Windell Oskay http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/265899865/

The Model: 4 basic abstractions

- Services:- Sensors- Actuators

- Connections

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/265899865/



Services: Sensors

- every Thing capable to produce data

- using HTTP

- anemometers, Arduino boards, but also Foursquare, Pachube, other services in the Web...

Ph. Windell Oskay http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/




Services: Actuators

- every Thing capable to receive/consume data and to perfom an action

- using HTTP

- lighting systems, Arduino, Chumby, Karotz, but also Twitter, Facebook, other applications...

Ph. Dieter Drescher http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmosfan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmosfan/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmosfan/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmosfan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmosfan


Connections

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Ph. supermaryan http://www.flickr.com/photos/33975256@N06/

- between two Services:

- a Sensor as the source- an Actuator as the destination

- they are con!gurable:

- data !ltering- data mapping

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33975256@N06/



problems: architecture & scalability

• Scalability

– What happens when the number of users grows?

– What happens when thousands of things are added?

– What happens when thousands of near real-time data have to be managed?

– System MUST be scalable by design!

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Ph. MrFaber, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrfaber

problems: architecture & scalability

C10K problem

Horizontal Scalability

Database

New Sensors/Actuators

Web server

Load balancing

Web-based Architecture

WS-* or REST

?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrfaber

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrfaber


part #2

Architectural & Design Choices

Ph. Jaime Silva, http://www.flickr.com/photos/20792787@N00/




WS-* or REST?

• in many cases adopting a WS-* stack is too complex: WSDL, SOAP over HTTP, ...

• often, we’re talking about (limited) physical digital Things

• we’ve chosen REST as architectural style:

» Things, connections, data, users, ..., are REST resources

» simpler, "exible, “mashable”, APIs18


Data persistence: SQL or NoSQL?

• Considering:– high data heterogeneity: DB schema "exibility required– database scalability across distributed systems– data partitioning & data replication

• We’ve chosen a NoSQL DB:

» no !xed schemas, no tables, no relations» high concurrent read-write, scalability, auto-

sharding» JSON native format

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Web server, Web front-end

• Full Web-based system

• C10K problem: 10,000 simultaneous open standing HTTP connections (clients)

• Horizontal scalability: add new server instances when required

• Load balancing/reverse proxy

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Things Connections

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• data transfers between DB-based queues• data adaptation performed by system processes• data adaptation rules de!ned by users for each owned

connection


Data adaptation: !lters

• a Filter is a boolean expression evaluated against data coming from a Sensor

–using Javascript as expression language

» sensor > 12» sensor.!eld == ‘mylabel’» sensor.data >20 && sensor.type == ‘temp’» ...

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Data adaptation: mappings

• Mappings are couple of expressions: (cond, repl)

• cond : a boolean expression evaluated against Sensor data (same as for !lters)

• repl : an expression producing a data value to be

forwarded to the Actuator when cond is true

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Mappings, examples

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Sensor data type

CONDITION REPLACE Actuator data type

numeric sensor > 30 <% sensor * 3.14 / 100 %> numeric

numeric sensor > 25Summer is coming, temperature is:

<% sensor %> °Ctext

JSON sensor.data > 30Data is <% sensor.data %>

and type is <% sensor.type %> text

JSONsensor.A0 > 30 &&

sensor.A5 <= 10

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <value>

<% sensor.A0 * 100 %>

</value>

XML

– Javascript as expression language


Paraimpu

• is a Web-based social tool

• allows people to:

– connect, use, share and compose Things, services and devices to create personalized WoT applications

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General Architecture

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DB scalability

Web front-end scalability

Load balancing

System processes (back-end) scalability


Paraimpu: the workspace

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Current version

• ~ 50 active alpha users

• Palette: • 5 ready-to-use Sensors + 1 generic Sensor• 7 ready-to-use Actuators + 1 generic Actuator

• Sharing policy: (private), public, open, moderated

• Noti!cation system between users for Things sharing28


Technologies

• Architecture mainly written in Python

• Web stack based on Tornado Web server

• NoSQL DBMS (MongoDB)

• HTML+jQuery

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Conclusion

• We believe that a social Web of Things can help in its diffusion...

• Results are encouraging: alpha users are helping us in testing and improving the system

• More and better test beds are under de!nition to prove system scalability in each of its critical aspects

• We’re working hard to add new features and new ready-to-use, easy-con!guration, components and Things

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The prototype

http://paraimpu.crs4.it

twitter: @paraimpu

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Contacts

• Antonio Pintus, [email protected], twitter: @apintux• Davide Carboni, [email protected]• Andrea Piras, [email protected]

• LBS group @ CRS4: http://geoweb.crs4.it/

• CRS4 Home Page: http://www.crs4.it

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http://geoweb.crs4.it

http://geoweb.crs4.it

http://www.crs4.it

http://www.crs4.it


Thank you for your attention

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Q & A

paraimpu: a social tool for the web of things @ wot2011

Technology

davide carboni

san francisco

andrea piras

social web of things

andrea piras wot2011

andrea piraswot2011

usaantonio pintus

physical things