An Evolutionary System Development Approach in A Pervasive Computing

Environment

Ruimin Liu Hongji Yang

Software Technology Research Laboratory De Software Technology Research Laboratory De
Montfort University, Leicester, UK Montfort University Leicester, UK
rliu@dmu.ac.uk hyang@dmu.ac.uk

Yangsheng Wang Wei Pan

Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing, China Sciences, Beijing, China
yangsheng.wang@mail.ia.ac.cn wpan@nlpr.ia.ac.cn

Abstract [3], but making them effectively invisible to the user [2].
Pervasive computing names the third wave in computing.
Mark Weiser described a hypothetical world in which
humans and computers were seamlessly united in a
seminal article a decade ago; he called this vision
Ubiquitous Computing [5, 6] (which now is also called
Pervasive Computing). After that, technology has
advanced along many dimensions, especially in hardware
progress and wireless communication technologies. A
number of leading technological organisations are
exploring Pervasive Computing. But it is far from
Weiser’s vision become reality. Pervasive Computing will
be the future. Pervasive computing will be a fertile source
of challenging research problems in computer systems for
many years to come. But until today, there is less attention
to the system evolution in pervasive computing
environment. This paper discusses the current
development of Pervasive Computing and technical
Figure 1. Major Trend in Computing [3]
challenges in deploying Pervasive Computing systems.
First, a model for evolution of pervasive Information
Pervasive computing is fundamentally characterised by
technology infrastructure of pervasive information is
the connection of things in the world with computation.
presented which shows how the existing technologies
Pervasive computing just might help to free the minds
solutions available can be used to develop a pervasive
from unnecessary work, and connect people to the
information infrastructure. Then a generic architecture of
fundamental challenge that humans have always had: to
pervasive computing system is given. Based these, an
understand the patterns in the universe and ourselves with
evolutionary system design approach is suggested.
them. Weiser heralded a future of ubiquitous and invisible
computing in a now often referenced article in Scientific
American in which he stated: “The most profound
1. Introduction technologies are those that disappear. They weave
themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are
The concept of pervasive computing emerged in the indistinguishable from it.” [5] When articulated, this was a
early 1990s by Mark Weiser. Pervasive computing is the vision too far ahead of its time -- the hardware technology
method of enhancing computer use by making many needed to achieve it simply did not exist.
computers available throughout the physical environment A pervasive computing system should be pervasive,
embedded, nomadic, adaptable, powerful, yet efficient,

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 intentional and eternal. It must everywhere, with every
portal reaching into the same information base; live in our
world, sensing and affecting it; allow users and
computations to move around freely, according to their
needs; provide flexibility and spontaneity, in response to
changes in user requirements and operating conditions;
free itself from constraints imposed by bounded hardware
resources, addressing instead system constraints imposed
by user demands and available power or communication
bandwidth; enable people to name services and software
objects by intent, as opposed to by address; never shut
down or reboot; components may come and go in
response to demand, errors, and upgrades [14].
After a decade of technology progress (include new
technologies—such as the Global Positioning System
(GPS[16], smart cards, and radio frequency identification
(RFID) tags—and social developments such as the
increasingly widespread acceptance of video surveillance
in public places), many critical elements of pervasive
computing are now viable commercial products, such as:
handheld and wearable computers; wireless LANs; and
devices to sense and control appliances.
A number of leading technological organisations are
exploring Pervasive computing. Xerox's Palo Alto
Research Centre (PARC), for example, has been working
on pervasive computing applications since the 1980s.
Although new technologies are emerging, the most crucial
objective is not, necessarily, to develop new technologies.
IBM's project Planet Blue, for example, is largely focused
on finding ways to integrate existing technologies with a
wireless infrastructure. Carnegie Mellon University's
Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) is working
on similar research in their Project Aura, whose stated
goal is "to provide each user with an invisible halo of
computing and information services that persists
regardless of location." The Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) has a project called Oxygen. MIT
named their project after that substance because they
envision a future of pervasive computing devices as freely
available and easily accessible as oxygen is today.
Pervasive Computing will be the future [15]. Pervasive
computing will be a fertile source of challenging research
problems in computer systems for many years to come.
There are some major research challenges in pervasive
computing environment [8], such as software architecture,
networking challenge, component interaction, user
interface integration, e.g. [7] But until today, there is less
attention to the system evolution in pervasive computing
environment. Pervasive computing system also has the
same characteristics as other computing systems, though it
has many more requirements than prior computing system,
such as distributed system and mobile computing system.
So the development of pervasive computing is also an
evolutionary process [1]. Because many research
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organisations represent a broad communal effort to make
pervasive computing a reality, there are many useful
utilities can be used, both in enterprise and in research
field, include ubiquitous devices (PDAs, smart devices,
e.g.), software for pervasive computing environment (Java,
operating systems, middleware components, e.g.) and
infrastructure ( wireless networks…). Based all these
contributions, we attempt an evolutionary design approach
in pervasive computing environment. The key progress
includes component extraction from existing pervasive
computing systems and seamless components integration
[11] with the Jini Technologies.
The research project on which this paper is based
proposes the method to extract useful components from
existing pervasive computing systems (such as Oxygen,
Aura, Portalano, e.g.) according to the new requirements.
Using the Jini technologies, all the components, including
the existing components (hardware components and
software components) and the components extracted from
existing pervasive computing system, can be seamless
integrated into an evolutionary system. The difficult
problems lie in component extraction, component
synthesis and the application of Jini technologies.
The structure of this paper is as follows. Section 2 is
the overview of the proposed approach. Section 3 is the
model of evolution of pervasive information infrastructure.
Section 4 gives a generic architecture of pervasive
computing system. Section 5 is the framework for
component identification and integration. Section 6 gives
blueprints of the future work.
2. An Approach to Evolutionary System
Design
Pervasive Computing will be the future. Pervasive
computing will be a fertile source of challenging research
problems in computer systems for many years to come.
But until today, there is less attention to the system
evolution in pervasive computing environment. The
system evolution in pervasive computing environment
includes many aspects, such as the evolution of the
information technology infrastructure, the evolution of
software system, etc. Pervasive computing system also
has the same characteristics as other computing systems,
though it has many more requirements than prior
computing system, such as distributed system and mobile
computing system. So the development of pervasive
computing is also an evolutionary process.
Because many research organisations represent a broad
communal effort to make pervasive computing a reality,
there are many useful utilities can be used, both in
enterprise and in academic field, include ubiquitous
devices (PDAs, smart devices, e.g.), software for
pervasive computing environment (Java, operating
 systems, middleware components, e.g.) and infrastructure
( wireless networks…). Based all these contributions, we
attempt an evolutionary design approach in pervasive
computing environment.
Figure 2. Proposed Evolutionary System
Design Approach
The approach consists of three major steps shown in
Fig 2: Requirements, Component Recovery, Component
Integration and Deployment.
Based the generic architecture of pervasive computing
system mentioned in Section 4 of this paper, the first step
of evolutionary pervasive computing system design is
requirement analysis. To the given scenario, the
requirement of system can be found out.
Component-based system design is the major approach
in the construction of pervasive computing system.
Pervasive computing has its own characteristics: a
pervasive computing system should be pervasive,
embedded, nomadic, adaptable, powerful, yet efficient,
intentional and eternal. So, a set of rule to do system
evolution should be established before the component
extraction. We have concluded some rules for system
evolution in pervasive computing environment, such as
component taxonomy.
The key of the research project is the method to extract
useful components from existing pervasive computing
systems (such as Oxygen, Aura, Portalano, e.g.) according
to the new requirements. Using the Jini technologies, all
the components, including the existing components
(hardware components and software components) and the
components extracted from existing pervasive computing
system, can be seamless integrated into an evolutionary
system. The difficult problems lie in component extraction,
component synthesis and the application of Jini
technologies. This will be expressed in Section 5.
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3. Evolution of Pervasive Information
Technology Infrastructure
The concept of pervasive computing is a paradigm shift
from a traditional computing point of view. So pervasive
computing should be modelled as a gradual evolution
from an existing information technology infrastructure
[10]. The evolution to pervasive computing is
characterised by a marked increase in mobility,
embeddedness, information technology integration, device
heterogeneity and the communication capability from an
infrastructure point of view. These basic characteristics
and other attributes—primarily derivatives in nature—
such as adaptivity, smartness (intelligent infrastructure),
localised scalability, uneven conditioning and context
sensitivity are the basis for the evolution of pervasive
infrastructure [12].
Figure 3. Evolution Stages of Pervasive
Computing Infrastructure
There are four stages in pervasive information
technology infrastructure evolution process as shown in
Figure 2.
• Stage 1 is traditional computing infrastructure, which
is computing PC centric, no organized introduction of
mobility in the information technology infrastructure, low
level of automation, focuses on integration of business
systems and workflow automation, use of information
technology for ERP, SCM, CRM and organisation value
consolidation.
• Stage 2 is mobile computing infrastructure which is
adoption of mobile technology and mobile information
access integrated into traditional computing infrastructure.
Mobile applications primarily for field, force
professionals and basic PIM, wireless capability missing
or limited to cellular access. Automation is still low.
Increased focus on mobilising the workflow.
• Stage 3 is integration of wireless infrastructure which
is adoption of wireless technology, both cellular and
WLANs. In this stage, widespread use of mobile devices
across the organisation in new user segments like
 knowledge workers with wireless email access,
introduction of platforms for transaction management,
devices management, content transcoding and mobile
security, supporting for ad hoc networking, automation
widespread across the organisation. In this stage,
emphasis on real-time management, real-time handing of
CRM, SCM, inventory control and dispatch.
• Stage 4 is pervasive computing infrastructure.
Introduction of pervasive infrastructure capabilities like
“context sensing”, “smart space”, efficiency management
systems for devices heterogeneity, “location awareness”,
new short range wireless technology such as Bluetooth, a
strong communication infrastructure, always-on
connectivity, content management and personalisation
platforms, bandwidth management systems, voice
platforms, substantial increase in the level of automation,
a software fabric encompassing the entire pervasive
computing infrastructure providing infrastructure
abstraction and providing all pervasive computing
capabilities as services to all other applications, system
operates in a very proactive manner and lots of
transactions happen invisibly based on user and
environment contexts and implicit input sensing, new
applications can be rolled out very fast without any
concern about the underlying infrastructure details,
increasing automation of transactions, focus on
collaboration, automation, real-time management and
real-time networking, infrastructure support for real-time
decision making.
From stage 1 to 2, transition typically characterised by
new technology adoption (mobile devices,
synchronisation systems) and a relatively low level of
technology integration. Primary running costs are related
to procuring and maintaining devices. Fixed infrastructure
costs involve synchronisation software, device
management software and security infrastructure.
From stage 2 to 3, transition typically characterised by
new technology adoption (wireless LAN setup, wireless
modems (WLAN, cellular) for mobile devices (laptops,
PDAs) ) and a medium level of technology integration.
Platforms for transaction management, device
management, content transcoding and mobile security, etc.
need to be introduced. Adding real-time transactions to
the previously synchronisation based mobile
communication model. Wireless access to e-mail and
intranet access can lead to improved productivity.
Mobility across the enterprise can lead to more
collaborative work environments. The infrastructure more
conducive towards handling ad hoc structures Wireless
capability gained at this stage is a primary requirement in
the next stages of the pervasive computing evolution.
From stage 3 to 4, transition typically characterised by
a relatively low-level new technology adoption (context
sensing including location sensing, smart space
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infrastructure like displays, radio Ids (e.g., RFIDs) and
radio devices such as those based on Bluetooth, infrared,
etc.) and a high level of technology integration (software
integration of different user and environmental contexts,
integrating user and world model with other applications,
integrating voice and other IO mechanisms). This
transition is primarily software intensive and will involve
intelligent software layering with a view to maximising
the benefits offered by the underlying pervasive
computing infrastructure. This transition will also see
additional pervasive computing capabilities based on the
experiences gained in the previous stage. High levels of
application integration will be involved. The modification
of existing application base to include pervasive
characteristics may also be involved.
4. A General Architecture of Pervasive
Computing System
The generic architecture of pervasive computing based
on the evolutionary view of pervasive computing
infrastructure is showed in Figure 3. The purpose of this
architecture is to providing a structured evolution
roadmap to systematically build a pervasive computing
infrastructure while accounting for the existing technology
[9].
This is a plug-and-play architecture for a pervasive
computing infrastructure which can be increased by
adding new technology components and by means of
integration. The overall architecture is based on an
existing mobile computing infrastructure with a truly
integrated communication layer. The communication layer
consists of technologies like WLAN, Bluetooth, infrared
and cellular technologies like
GSM/GPRS/UMTS/CDMA1X and provides wireless
connectivity as a service provided by the infrastructure.
The communication layer should be extensible so as to
allow both indoor and outdoor (cellular) wireless access
depending on the context. A wireless capability is
absolutely fundamental in the evolution from a mobile
computing infrastructure to a pervasive computing
infrastructure. The backend infrastructure for supply chain
management, ERP, business intelligence, vertical
applications integration, etc., remains as it exists in the
mobile computing infrastructure context [12].
The core components consist of services such as
service/ resource discovery, security, transactions,
notification, query engines, storage services, replication
services, messaging engine and session management, etc.
The plug-n-play components typically reside at the
periphery of the pervasive information infrastructure
along with other components like mobile devices. As an
example, plug-n-play infrastructure components could be
those related to context sensing like location information
 (location sensors-transmitters, tags and other location
sensing devices), infrared beaming, radio ID tags such as
RFIDs, tracking capabilities and other sensors such as
temperature, lighting, etc.
Figure 4. A Generic Architecture of the Pervasive
Computing System
Whenever a new plug-n-play component gets added,
say, indoor location sensing, only the corresponding
virtual of the concerned objects need to be updated with a
new context definition. The system can now provide
enhanced services by virtue of the fact that the smartness
of the system (smartness is a fundamental characteristic of
pervasiveness), and hence pervasiveness, has increased.
This concept not only allows for rapid service creation but
also helps to evolve the pervasive computing
infrastructure without impacting the applications that the
user interacts with [12].
5. A Framework for Component
Identification and Integration
The evolutionary pervasive computing system design is
component-based [4]. We proposed a framework based on
Jini technology in this process. This is a part of our
approach in pervasive computing system evolution.
Figure 4 gives the proposed framework in evolutionary
pervasive computing system design. There are different
components in this framework [6].
• Task Manager maintains a representation of tasks,
and a mapping between context and user preferences.
• Context Observer interprets the physical context of
the user and is responsible for identifying such things as
the user’s location, focus of attention.
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Figure 5. A Framework for Component
Identification and Integration
• JAIW is a component integration tool, can discover,
match, and assemble components to complete an
application. It’s also responsible for recognising what
resources are available and noticing when there is a
resource change in the user environment. It’s based the
Jini technology.
Figure 6. Overview of Jini Technology in JAIW
Figure 5 shows the overview of the Jini technology
approach. RFID systems are connected to event drivers
(EDs), which generate enter and leave events from
periodical tag scans. The EDs act as producers for the
counterpart event service (VCES). The VCES delivers
events to the counterpart manager (VCM), and specific
counterparts. The VCM acts as an execution environment
for counterparts. Upon the first sighting of a tagged object
or location, it consults the counterpart repository (VCR) to
obtain counterpart executables for the tag or location.
Counterparts register with the look-up service (LUS), so
that cooperating counterparts can find each other. The
artefact memory (AM) acts as a place for persistently
storing and retrieving counterpart state and event histories.
Small amounts of state can also be stored in the tag
memory by sending appropriate store events to the VCES
[13].
 6. Conclusion and Future Work
Pervasive computing will be a fertile source of
challenging research problems in computer systems for
many years to come. Solving these problems will require
us to broaden our discourse on some topics, and to revisit
long-standing design assumptions in others. We will also
have to address research challenges in areas outside
computer systems. These areas include human-computer
interaction (especially multi-modal interactions and
human-centric hardware designs), software agents (with
specific relevance to high-level proactive behaviour), and
expert systems and artificial intelligence (particularly in
the areas of decision making and planning). Capabilities
from these areas will need to be integrated with the kinds
of computer systems capabilities discussed in this paper.
Pervasive computing will thus be the crucible in which
many disjoint areas of research are fused.
We should be fully aware that attaining it would
require tremendous creativity and effort by many people,
sustained over many years. The early decades of the 21st
century will be a period of excitement and ferment, as
new hardware technologies converge with research
progress on the many fundamental problems. Like the
Frontier of the American West in the early 19th century,
pervasive computing offers new beginnings for the
adventurous and the restless — a rich open space where
the rules have yet to be written and the borders yet to be
drawn.
Our future work can be addressed as follow. First,
further investigation into the infrastructure of pervasive
computing is required, especially in middleware
infrastructure (like some operating systems for pervasive
computing environment) and wireless Web. Second, how
to combine the existing technologies of software
reengineering to the evolution of pervasive computing
systems and make the evolution available are our
assumption of future work. We propose to build a model
for pervasive computing system evolution based on the
approach we mentioned in this paper.
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