Workflow Management Systems in MANETs

The widespread availability of network-enabled handheld devices (e.g., PDAs with WiFi) has made pervasive computing environment development an emerging reality. Mobile (or multi-hop) Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs-Agrawal & Zeng, 2003) are mobile device networks communicating via wireless links without relying on an underlying infrastructure. Each device in a MANET acts as an endpoint and as a router forwarding messages to devices within radio range. MANETs are a sound alternative to infrastructure-based networks whenever the infrastructure is lacking or unusable, for example, military applications, disaster/relief, emergency situations, and communication between vehicles.

Verifying Mobile Agent Design Patterns with RPOO

This article presents the formalization and analysis of three migration design patterns—itinerary, star-shaped, and branching—done by using of RPOO. A brief comparison between RPOO models and classical Colored Petri net (Jensen, 1992, 1997) models is also briefly presented.

Using Service Proxies for Content Provisioning

In modern broadband mesh networks, communication between two end nodes is carried out not directly, but through a number of intermediate nodes. While these nodes’ only function may be to relay information from one point to another, they may also host computational elements which perform some service on behalf of other applications. We deal with the problem of optimally mapping multimedia content transcoding service elements onto network resources. There may be several places in the network where the required compression and decompression services could be performed. We would like to select the best locations that meet the application’s requirements. We propose a new approximation algorithm for constrained path optimization, which provides better scalability and simplicity than previous approaches. This is accomplished basically by partitioning the overall problem into smaller ones.

Software Platforms for Mobile Programming

Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), .NET Compact Framework (.NET CF), and Active Server Pages .NET (ASP.NET) Mobile Controls are commonly used alternatives in mobile programming. They provide an environment for applications to run on mobile devices. However, they are different in many ways, such as supported mobile devices, architecture, and development. Hence, it is important for mobile application developers to understand the differences between them in order to choose the one that meets their requirement. Therefore, in this article we will discuss the general architecture of J2ME, .NET CF and ASP.NET Mobile Controls and compare the three alternatives.

Shot Boundary Detection Techniques for Video Sequences

This chapter will outline the various existing methods of boundary shot and scene change detection.

Sensor Data Fusion for Location Awareness

During the past few years, several location systems have been proposed that use multiple technologies simultaneously in order to locate a user. One such system is described in this article. It relies on multiple sensor readings from Wi-Fi access points, IR beacons, RFID tags, and so forth to estimate the location of a user. This technique is known better as sensor information fusion, which aims to improve accuracy and precision by integrating heterogeneous sensor observations. The proposed location system uses a fusion engine that is based on dynamic Bayesian networks (DBNs), thus substantially improving the accuracy and precision.

Provisioning of Multimedia Applications across Heterogeneous All-IP Networks

With the opening of the telecommunication market and the emergence of low-cost and heterogeneous wireless access technologies, it is envisaged that next-generation network and service providers will not only vary in the deployed access technology but also in their business models and structures. Such providers will differ from large providers such as the current telecom providers offering multiple services and covering large geographical areas, down to small providers offering certain services such as conferencing or messaging only or covering small geographical areas such as a coffee shop or a shopping mall. Further, while in the current networking environment, a home provider of a user is usually represented by a large telecom provider; in such a heterogeneous environment, any trustworthy entity such as an application provider, a banking entity, or a credit card provider that is capable of authenticating the user and marinating his usage profile can act as a home provider. Towards this vision this article discusses the issues that concern the establishment of multimedia applications across heterogeneous networks.

Peer-to-Peer Cooperative Caching in Mobile Environments

An infrastructure-based mobile environment is formed with a wireless network connecting mobile hosts (MHs) and mobile support stations (MSSs). MHs are clients equipped with portable devices, such as laptops, personal digital assistants, cellular phones, and so on, while MSSs are stationary servers providing information access for the MHs residing in their service areas. With the recent widespread deployment of contemporary peer-to-peer (known as P2P throughout this chapter) wireless communication technologies, such as IEEE 802.11 (IEEE Standard 802-11, 1997) and Bluetooth (Bluetooth SIG, 2004), coupled with the fact that the computation power and storage capacity of most portable devices have been improving at a fast pace, a new information sharing paradigm known as P2P information access has rapidly taken shape. The MHs can share information among themselves rather than having to rely solely on their connections to the MSS. This article reviews a hybrid communication framework - that is, mobile cooperative caching - which combines the P2P information access paradigm into the infrastructure-based mobile environment.

New Transaction Management Model

In this article, we consider the distributed database that can make up mobile nodes and the peer-to-peer concept. These nodes are peers and may be replicated both for fault-tolerance, dependability, and to compensate for nodes that are currently disconnected. Thus we have a distributed replicated database where several sites must participate in the synchronization of transactions. The capabilities of the distributed replicated database are extended to allow mobile nodes to plan disconnection, with the capability of updating the database on behalf of the mobile node by using a fixed proxy server to make these updates during the mobile disconnection, once a mobile reconnects automatically, synchronously, and integrates into the database.

Mobile Video Transcoding Approaches and Challenges

This article examines the challenges and limitations that face video transcoding schemes in a mobile multimedia transporting network. Then we explore different approaches for video transcoding schemes in a mobile multimedia transporting network.