Context-aware automatic service discovery and execution engine in mobile ad-hoc networks

• US 7,681,203 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2004
• Issued: 03/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Deutschland GmbH (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Deutschland GmbH (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kovacs, Erno, Mandato, Davide
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough; Hyung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Seye; Abdou K
• Application Number:
  US10/969,760
• Publication Number:
  US 20050114493A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,973 Days
• Field of Search: 719/316, 709/204
• US Class Current: 719/316
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

In mobile computing and context awareness in mobile ad-hoc networks, node connectivity is unpredictably time-varying. A middleware entity solves the problem of automatically executing a user-defined set of actions, collected in a user profile, upon detection of events such as an attachment of a mobile terminal to the ad-hoc network, changes of the underlying network topology, the moving of mobile terminals into the physical proximity of further mobile terminals, the presence of services and/or of users within the network, and a detachment of a mobile terminal from the ad-hoc network. Thereby, the actions are invocations of services hosted on the mobile terminal or other mobile terminals interconnected via the ad-hoc network. The aforementioned profiles are stored on mobile terminals (e.g. PDAs, mobile phones, etc.) or on fixed or mobile customer-edge devices such as television sets, home gateways, etc. Also envisioned is the deployment of a distributed database holding the profiles.

Claims

1. A terminal connectable to a network, said terminal being adapted to support at least one of an application and a middleware entity to automatically discover services offered by said network, at least one of network topology changes and users'"'"' presence in order to execute a user-defined set of actions upon reception of event notification messages indicating an availability of specific services hosted on said terminal, a presence of other terminals interconnected via said network or a presence of a user operating one of said terminals whenever a number of predefined triggering conditions for triggering an execution of an action that is used to control the services is met, wherein

said terminal includes the middleware entity having

means for creating bindings between triggering conditions and profiles by assisting users to select triggering conditions, select or create profiles, and associate each triggering condition with at least one action from a selected or created profile,

a core processing unit configured to manage an activation of a binding for an association of a given profile with given triggering conditions, by leveraging services of said means for creating bindings or by allowing applications to directly install said bindings by using a specified application programming interface (API), to monitor an occurrence of triggering conditions belonging to active bindings, to evaluate guard conditions for fine-grained control, wherein guard variables monitor properties of the terminal, and to execute said actions depending on the corresponding guard variables upon reception of event notification messages indicating any met triggering conditions,

an Event Service system for registering a user for at least one of classes of events and specific events generated by specific event producers, for registering a user for complex classes of events by correlating events generated by at least one event producers and monitoring an occurrence of correlated events, for pre-processing event notification messages indicating an availability of specific services, and for forwarding said event notification messages only to registered users interested in at least one of said classes of events and said event notification messages generated by said specific event producers, and

a unit configured to access said user-defined sets of actions from a distributed database including a multiplicity of profiles containing actions for requesting, activating, controlling and deactivating said services, respectively, and to execute said user-defined sets of actions.

2. A terminal according to claim 1, wherein the Event Service system supports the middleware entity evaluating complex triggering conditions modeled as individual or correlated events, notifications of which the middleware entity computes and registers with said Event Service system, said event notification messages are either one of locally generated or remotely generated.

3. A terminal according to claim 1, wherein a Network Information Engine (NIE) detects events concerning a detection of either one of said services and other terminals within a specified radius around the terminal hosting the middleware entity.

4. A terminal according to claim 1, wherein a Person Identification Unit (PIU) detects events concerning a detection of users participating in communication via said network within said radius around said terminal.

5. A terminal according to claim 1, wherein a dynamically configurable context processing system with an integrated module is configured to correlate events generated by at least one event producer, which is applied on incoming event notification messages to enhance and/or refine data being delivered to the core processing unit.

6. A terminal according to claim 1, wherein a dynamically configurable context processing system with an integrated module is configured to correlate events generated by at least one event producer applied to context data in order to provide further information to compute triggering conditions.

7. A terminal according to claim 1, wherein an external processing unit is configured to interpret a scripting language for delegating complex profile specifications to said processing unit in order to allow said middleware entity using a simple profile specification language.

8. A terminal according to claim 7, wherein said external processing unit includes an internal application programming interface for realizing a remote procedure call (RPC) towards a remote target service transparent to the user and agnostic of an actual pluggable RPC protocol used by abstracting out a syntax required by the applied RPC protocol.

9. A method for supporting at least one of an application and a middleware entity to automatically detect services offered by nodes of an ad-hoc network, at least one of network topology changes and users'"'"' presence in order to execute a user-defined set of actions collected in a profile upon reception of event notification messages indicating an availability of specific services hosted at least on a mobile terminal and other mobile terminals interconnected via said ad-hoc network whenever a number of predefined triggering conditions for triggering an execution of an action that is used to at least one of the plurality of request, activate, control and deactivate the services is met on behalf of said applications or said middleware entity, said method comprising:

creating bindings between triggering conditions and profiles by assisting users to select triggering conditions, select or create profiles and associate each selected triggering condition with at least one action from a selected or created profile;

managing an activation of a binding for an association of a given profile with given triggering conditions, by leveraging services of said creating bindings or by allowing applications to directly install said bindings by using a specified application programming interface (API);

monitoring an occurrence of triggering conditions which belong to active bindings;

evaluating guard conditions for fine-grained control, wherein guard variables monitor properties of the terminal;

upon reception of event notification messages indicating any met triggering conditions, executing said action depending on the corresponding guard variables;

allowing a registration process for classes of events and specific events generated by specific event producers;

allowing a registration process for complex classes of events by correlating events generated by at least one event producer and monitoring an occurrence of correlated events;

pre-processing event notification messages indicating an availability of specific services;

forwarding the event notification messages only to registered users interested in at least one of said classes of events and said event notification messages generated by said specific event producers;

accessing user-defined sets of actions from a distributed database including a multiplicity of profiles containing actions for requesting, activating, controlling and deactivating said services, respectively; and

executing said user-defined sets of actions.

10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising:

coupling new associations between triggering conditions and specified profiles by activating said bindings.

11. A method according to claim 9, further comprising:

decoupling installed associations between triggering conditions and specified profiles by deactivating said bindings.

12. A method according to claims 10, or 11, further comprising:

reusing recursively specified profiles and triggering conditions by activating installed bindings between said profiles and said triggering conditions.

13. A method according to claims 10, or 11, further comprising:

applying profiles specified on user level and profiles specified on service provider level to address different expertise levels of users such that non-expert users do not need to know an exact sequence of actions that have to be taken upon an occurrence of a certain event in order to achieve a desired effect.

14. A method according to claims 10, or 11, further comprising:

statically retrieving information including interface definitions of remote devices offering said services and profiles specified on service provider level from a local or remote persistent profile library, updates of which can be downloaded from a server connected to said network.

15. A method according to claims 10, or 11, further comprising:

dynamically retrieving proactively disseminated information including interface definitions of remote devices offering said services and profiles specified on service provider level via a Service Discovery Protocol (SDP).

16. A method according to claims 10, or 11, further comprising:

dynamically retrieving information including interface definitions of remote devices offering said services and profiles specified on service provider level by querying the services as soon as they have been detected on an assumption that the services publish such information as a specific attribute.

17. A method according claims 10, or 11, further comprising:

dynamically retrieving information including interface definitions of remote devices offering said services and profiles specified on service provider level by querying a proxy entity which supports services that run on devices with limited capabilities concerning either memory and an enforcement of legacy interfaces.

18. A method according to claims 10, or 11, further comprising:

delegating complex profile specifications to an external processing unit configured to interpret a specific scripting language of choice by realizing a remote procedure call (RPC), such that a simple profile specification language is transparent of an applied RPC protocol.

19. A computer readable storage medium encoded with a computer readable program configured to cause an information processing apparatus to execute a method according to claim 9 when run on a mobile computing device.