PERVASIVE

COMPUTING &

UBIQUITOUS SERVICES Dr. Rahul Banerjee

Professor, Computer Science Group

BITS-Pilani

Email: rahul@bits-pilani.ac.in

Home: http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/~rahul/

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 1

What is Pervasive or Ubiquitous

Computing? • Pervasive Computing is the study of a computing technology that

pervades the users’ environment by making use of seamless connectivity of multiple independent information devices embedded in the environment of the users.

• This is done by:

• Making use of multiple independent information devices (fixed or mobile, homogeneous or heterogeneous)

• Interconnecting these devices seamlessly through wireless or wired computer communication networks

• Providing a class of computing / sensory / communication services to a class of users, preferably transparently and can provide personalized services while ensuring a fair degree of privacy / non-intrusiveness.

• Pervasive Computing is also called Ubiquitous Computing or Invisible Computing.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 2

Basic Elements of Pervasive Computing

• Pervasive Computing is

• A branch of computing that allows computing elements

to pervade user’s environment to help user(s) preferably

without being intrusive

• Involves elements of computing, sensing,

communication networking, services

• Demonstrates its ubiquitous nature by being freely

available <at times, almost invisible / transparent to the

user(s)

• Has hardware, firmware, software (OS, VM, Apps. Etc.

includes, services) as its basic elements

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 3

Learning Objectives

• Clear conceptual understanding of fundamentals involving all

elements and aspects of Pervasive Computing

• Learning design process of Pervasive Computing

Environments / Solutions

• Understanding hardware, software / services aspects involved

• Brief comparative study of protocols, languages, models &

technologies involved

• Studying a few real-life Pervasive Computing systems using

the case-study approach so as to get a feel of the existing

practice (preferably including ‘Best Current Practice’)

• Designing your own solution for a set of suggested

specifications

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 4

How shall this course be conducted?

• Lectures and Tutorials

• Lecture plan:

• 16 lectures of about 2-hour duration

• 04 Tutorial sessions (one after each set of four lectures)

• As provided in the Online version of the Course Handout at the course page of the WILP

portal / BITS-VU / Nalanda portal, if necessary, at the on-line version of the extended

Course Handout available on the course page

<Please refer to the course handout for the topic-wise information & references>

• Assignments (no marks attached): Conceptual, Case-study,

Design & Implementation types

• Online Quizzes (no marks attached): During the lectures /

tutorials

• Post-examination discussion on possible solution approaches

to the given problems

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 5

What is being done at BITS-Pilani?

• The BITS-LifeGuard Project

• Initiated in 1999

• Aims at building transparent life-saving system for saving human

lives from slow-reflexes based road accidents

• First formal presentation was made at the European Commission’s

NGNi Meeting at Brussels in 2001

• Partial funding derived from the EC and MSR

• Currently, co-working on complementary research issues with

Stanford University in USA and INRIA in France

• Project website: http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/WearComp/

• Currently, three PhD students are working on different aspects of

the problem

Tuesday, 28 September 2010 6 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA

What is being done at BITS-Pilani?

• The Project IPv6@BITS Project website:

http://ipv6.bits-pilani.ac.in/

• Initiated in 1998, this was India’s first IPv6 based research,

development and large-scale deployment project that

brought many firsts to the country

• The Project Grid-One Project website: http://idisovery.bits-

pilani.ac.in/GridOne/

• Initiated in 2003, focussed on building an IPv6-native

support based research grid for collaborative health-grid

• Partially funded by Microsoft Research, Redmond

Tuesday, 28 September 2010 7 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA

What is being done at BITS-Pilani?

• The Project NetFirst Project website: http://idisovery.bits-

pilani.ac.in/iCampus/ • Initiated in 2005, focussed on building web-browser-driven real

network research laboratories located remotely

• Started in collaboration with the MIT-Cambridge under the BITS-MIT iCampus India initiative

• The Extended iSpace Project • Started in 2007, in collaboration with the Centre for Design Research

and CS Department of Stanford University

• Focusses upon multi-platform distributed intelligent collaborative learning spaces

• The BITS-SmartCampus Project • Initiated in 2007, focussed on providing location-discovery, security-

monitoring and emergency health services

Tuesday, 28 September 2010 8 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA

Some observations

• Ubiquitous / Pervasive Computing has come of age even without our realizing it in quite a few cases

• Major research, development and deployment efforts have been undertaken the world over and India is already very much part of it

• Around the globe, quite a few research-driven graduate level and some undergraduate level courses are on offer

• E-learning technologies are beginning to benefit from the spin-offs of Pervasive Computing research

Tuesday, 28 September 2010 9 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA

The Microsoft Surface Computing

Technology

The Stanford iStuff Devices

iSpeaker iLight

iBuzzer

Anoto Pen iMouse

iMike

iDog

X10

iStylus iSlider

RF

iButtons

Input

Output

Some observations

• Ubiquitous / Pervasive Computing has come of age even without our realizing it in quite a few cases

• Major research, development and deployment efforts have been undertaken the world over and India is already very much part of it

• Around the globe, quite a few research-driven graduate level and some undergraduate level courses are on offer

• E-learning technologies are beginning to benefit from the spin-offs of Pervasive Computing research

Tuesday, 28 September 2010 12 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA

References • Text Book:

• Stefen Poslad: Ubiquitous Computing: Smart Devices, Environments and Interactions, Wiley, London, 2009. (Summary available online at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/summary/12293925/SUMMARY)

•

• Reference Material:

• Uwe Hansman, Lothar Merk, Martin S. Nicklous & Thomas Stober: Pervasive Computing, Second Edition, Springer-Verlag, 2003. (ISBN 81-7722-468-9)

• Jochen Burkhardt, Horst Henn, Stefan Hepper, Thomas Schaec & Klaus Rindtorff: Pervasive Computing: Technology and Architecture of Mobile Internet Applications, Pearson Education, New Delhi, 2006.

• P. Nicopolitidis, M. S. Obaidat, G. I. Papadimitriou & A. S. Pompportsis: Wireless Networks, John Wiley & Sons, New Delhi, 2003. (ISBN 9812-53-033-9)

• Frank Adelstein, S K S Gupta, G G Richard & L Schwiebert: Fundamentals of Mobile and Pervasive Computing, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, 2005.

• Asoke K Talukder & R R Yavagal: Mobile Computing, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, 2005.

• Daniel Amor: Internet Future Strategies: How Pervasive Computing Services Will Change the World, Prentice-Hall PTR, 2008.

• In addition to these, you shall be expected to read as per the ‘Online Reading Advisories’ posted at the course page from time to time.

•

• Course Home Page:

• URL for the course’s home page is: http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/rahul/PervasiveComputing/. Third week onward the IntraBITS portal for the course shall be accessible to all registered students, in addition to the resources at the course’s home page with effect from the third week of the course.

•

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 13