CSR: Small: Project T: Enabling Open Innovation in Mobile Platforms through API Virtualization

CSR：小型：T 项目：通过 API 虚拟化实现移动平台的开放式创新

• 批准号: 1618531
• 负责人: Steven Ko
• 金额: $ 47.24万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Buffalo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-01 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1618531&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CSR; Small; Project; Enabling; Open

Openness is a key to innovation. Numerous areas in computer science and other disciplines have embraced openness and witnessed an explosion of new technological advances. This proposal argues that mobile platforms (such as Android and iOS) need to embrace openness as well. This is motivated by the fact that the current mobile platforms are mostly closed and do not allow third-party innovation, making it extremely difficult to introduce disruptive technologies. This can be observed easily by examining the most open mobile platform, Android. Android is regarded as an open platform since its source code is open. However, it is indeed a closed platform from the perspective of open innovation; this is because a small, independent third party has no easy way to modify the platform and distribute the modification at a large scale to end users. Only a select few, such as Google and Samsung, have the power to modify the platform and deliver it.Recognizing such a problem, this project proposes a new technique called API virtualization that enables open innovation in mobile platforms. API virtualization allows third-party developers to modify, reimplement, or customize platform APIs and deploy the modifications seamlessly. The uniqueness of the proposed technique is that it enables modifications completely at the app layer without requiring any platform-level changes. This allows practical openness---third parties can easily distribute their modifications for a platform without the need to update the entire platform.If successful, this project will produce (1) a working prototype that implements API virtualization on Android, (2) several case-study systems that leverage API virtualization and provide better functionality such as app anonymity, automatic mobile-cloud integration, and energy policy customization, and (3) a Web service where third-party developers upload their platform API modifications that end users can download and use.

开放是创新的关键。计算机科学和其他学科的许多领域都拥抱了开放，见证了新技术进步的爆炸性增长。该提案认为，移动平台(如Android和iOS)也需要接受开放。这是因为目前的移动平台大多是封闭的，不允许第三方创新，这使得引入颠覆性技术变得极其困难。通过研究最开放的移动平台Android，可以很容易地观察到这一点。Android被视为一个开放平台，因为它的源代码是开放的。然而，从开放创新的角度来看，它确实是一个封闭的平台；这是因为一个小的、独立的第三方没有简单的方法来修改平台，并将修改的内容大规模分发给最终用户。只有少数几家公司，如谷歌和三星，才有能力修改并交付平台。该项目认识到了这个问题，提出了一种名为API虚拟化的新技术，使移动平台能够进行开放式创新。API虚拟化允许第三方开发人员修改、重新实现或定制平台API，并无缝部署修改。提出的技术的独特之处在于，它可以完全在应用程序层进行修改，而不需要任何平台级的更改。这允许实际的开放性-第三方可以轻松地分发他们对平台的修改，而无需更新整个平台。如果成功，该项目将产生(1)在Android上实施API虚拟化的工作原型，(2)几个利用API虚拟化并提供更好功能的案例研究系统，例如应用程序匿名性、自动移动-云集成和能源政策定制，以及(3)第三方开发人员上传他们的平台API修改的Web服务，最终用户可以下载和使用。