The world will change dramatically as more and more computerized
devices will be
spread around us. Such computers will most likely communicate via a
wireless link
and should share their tasks dynamically. Unfortunately, modern
operating systems,
applications, and mobility management solutions are not capable of
getting all the
benefits out of this heterogeneous computing cloud (or grid, mesh).
Instead, they keep
using the same resources, such as a processor and same user interface
even though
there would be much faster and less expensive equipments readily
available nearby.
Thus, the next grand challenges in the future ubiquitous environment is
“how the
applications (or services) will be able to utilize all computing
resources in different
computers of their dynamic and heterogeneous environment”, not “how
computers
can communicate with neighboring devices wirelessly” nor “how to make
the devices
and applications context sensitive”.
We see this heterogeneity leading us to a new era where not only
terminals and users
are mobile but also the applications become nomadic and computers are
created
dynamically out of the available resources that can be found around us.
This can be
done, when we implement a new nomadic application concept where
applications can
move from one computer to another while maintaining their history and
current state
(i.e., session continuity). Two important questions will arise: how to
enable existing
(unmodified) applications to utilize nomadicity; and what are the
impacts of nomadic
application concept on the future SW development, operating systems,
security
solutions, etc.
The primary objective of this research project is to design a
demonstrator-prototype
of the nomadic application concept that paves the way towards the
future
dynamically changing virtual computing environment, that allows
applications to
suspend in a one computing environment and later resume in the same or
a
different computing environment that may have significantly different
properties in
respect of computing resources, such as processing power, energy,
communication
capabilities and user interfaces.
Such nomadic applications will be a fundamental building block of the
future where a
large number of computers are used in providing new services to end
users. We
believe that our Nomadic Application concept will be eventually
implemented as an
elementary part of every computing device attached in the future
society where tens or
even hundreds of computers (per user) are spread around us.
A secondary objective of this project is to specify a detailed research
plan for a large
research consortium.
Partners
TEKES
TKK:
Laboratory of
Software Technology
- Professor Heikki Saikkonen
Telecommunications
Software and Multimedia Laboratory
- Professor Jukka Manner
- Professor Tapio Takala
- Professor Antti Ylä-Jääski
Signal Processing
Laboratory
Industrial Partners
