Disconnected Operations Application Adoption

Disconnected Operations

            Later on the thought process arrived at certain stage and technology provided a mechanism that we are able to access our database, file systems using distributed mobile clients but at some stages we are disconnected from the network.

            For example we have received a file and at that time we are connected and after making certain changes we have to send that file back to the recipient computer or server but we don’t have connectivity. The task will be accomplished in disconnected mode and as soon the connectivity is available the data which is most recently saved or changed will be synchronized.

Application Adoption

            As there were various types of hardware and platforms developed so the data and the files used by the user required consistency in terms of updated version of the data and file, appearance & view, quality of the data as well. If we are using a power point file in our office computer, and we have to go to somewhere for presenting that file and we sent it through email and while we are travelling to that place, we opened it using palmtop OS or other mobile OS and make necessary changes, then after reaching at that place where we have to present that file we would have to open it a computer connected to projector and that computer has Linux installed on it.     Keeping in mind that scenario where variety of OS are involved and heterogeneous platforms are being used so the contents of the files should remain intact, this can be achieved using Application Adoption and there are transcoders who actually transforms the data according to the target machine.

            An intermediate machine called transcoding proxy will be required to transform the view of the file on a desktop computer, mobile device, laptop and others, keeping in sense their connectivity and bandwidth. As mobile phones are mostly connected with low bandwidth connections. This feature of transcoding is used with web technologies but it also has proved itself very helpful in mobile computing too.

Efficient use of power

            The same concept led us towards the efficient power consumption and mobile power sources which can be embedded inside the mobile device as an element. It should be so much energy efficient that it may provide us power for a reasonable amount of time until we would be able to complete the task or traditional power supply connection is get available for recharging it.

            Lots of hardware changes were done by reducing the size of the elements is computing devices. For example the Hard disk size is reduced for less power consumption, it was focused for designing power efficient processors and smart memory management mechanisms and hierarchy of memory is used to attain efficiency, having smaller size with energy efficiency. The operating systems were also designed with energy efficient features. All these changes brought coherence in designing mobile elements.

Additional Features, Characteristics of Mobile & Distributing Computing

            Location sensing and location aware computing actually sense your computing environment and helps you with application program in performing tasks. Distributed computing benefits are Remote communication, remote computing, remote location access, remote information access, privacy, security, protocol layering, fault tolerance, high availability and used these in mobile computing

            In mobile computing we get the features of mobile network, remote and mobile location access, application adoption, context awareness and we added these features in Pervasive computing

Is that all about Pervasive Computing?

            Is this just a pervasive computing that we borrowed some features from mobile computing and lots of other features from distributed computing and by combining these features we are able to get Pervasive Computing?

No this is not exactly right. We are getting various features from various domains and various domains contributed also. Hence Pervasive Computing possesses its own essential features, ideas, algorithms, techniques that were contributed towards the growth of Pervasive Computing.

Effective Use of Smart Space

            There is always a tradeoff between mobility and speed. If we are outdoor there is variation in connectivity, coverage and speed in comparison with indoor.

            The concept of smart space is different from indoor and outdoor coverage. In every organization, there is difference in I.T. infrastructure in terms of availability of resources, the provision of using them and so on.

            The usability of smart space is primarily concerned with its I.T. infrastructure. The idea of smart space brings together two worlds that have been disjoint.

-          Computing Infrastructure, Building Infrastructure

            The concept of smart spaces brought these disjoint infrastructures closer enough. While we are going to design any physical infrastructure we would keep in our mind that how communication and computing mechanism will be implemented similarly as we think about the design of electricity, water supply and so on. 

Invisibility of Pervasive Computing

The idea is complete disappearance of pervasive computing technology from a user’s conscious. 

Minimal user distraction

            If we think about an environment in which various communication devices like routers, switches, Wireless routers, Wi-Fi, cables so how these can be invisible. The concept of invisibility is not to hide these communication elements, but idea is to make the use of things so very intuitive that it became 2^nd nature of the human beings.

            For example if we are new user of smart phone and started using it without keeping in mind that how complex it is. So after few days or weeks we would be able to use that smart phone very easily. We even don’t have to think for a fraction of a second that which soft button is to be touched if we have to receive a phone call. So it become the habit and influenced our nature. It should become 2^nd nature of the user.

            So the idea of invisibility is to make the use of device so common that the end user would not feel surprises while using the technology. This invisibility is directly influenced by usability techniques. Adaptive usability techniques from Human Computer Interaction domain.

Localized Scalability

Ability to handle growing amount of work in a graceful manner. This has severe band width, energy and distraction implications for a wireless mobile user.

            We have a scenario for discussion and that is aware home project that there are sensors installed in the home. Many persons are moving around, how the electricity is being consumed, how much the water is used for draining and also for drinking, which activities are carried out by the residents. Which of the room is mostly used by the living beings at home?

            The sensors are required to communicate with someone like server outside the home for storing that information. These sensors are also connected with Wi-Fi link. All the sensors are constantly connected with server and sending data to the server. While all the communicating devices are sending information to the server, what would be first implication that arises into our mind as these sensors are mobile element so they can be easily moved in the home? The answer of that question is the power source for these mobile sensors. If all these sensors are connected with a single power sources then it will be depleted very soon. Or if they are using individual battery source then after few hours these batteries will die.

            2^nd implication is that if these mobile elements are using a Wi-Fi router so that Wi-Fi will be congested as sensors are constantly sending information to the server and most of the devices are overlapping the information. There will be delay is information transmission at the real time. The next actions which are required to be executed on the basis of the information and that information is delayed enough so next action will not be occurred as typical course of event. The smart environment is no longer scalable at this moment.

            The feature of scalability is that it should handle the situation carefully; either we have installed so many sensors, communication devices.

            Due to the information overlapping there may be some messages transmitted with less importance or messages may contain the same information. So there must be a priority mechanism get involved. The real time decision must be taken at the earliest. Hard real time scenario is required to be involved. So localized scalability or we can say simple scalability is measured as most important feature of pervasive computing.