ITR: Environment-Aware Communication for Mobile Grouped Devices

处理器技术的进步，既提高了处理能力，又降低了能耗，导致了从锡林笔记本电脑到PDA，再到智能手机，再到由一系列小型独立设备制成的可穿戴计算机的新一代小型智能设备的诞生。这种设备和可穿戴计算机的出现揭示了新的可能性和新的需求，具体地说：设备之间的合作和电缆的消除。短距离无线电技术的发展，如蓝牙，使这些设备能够通过无线链路进行合作。随着用户收集多个小型计算设备，用户可用的通信资源量增加，因此对这些设备之间的资源协调的需求增加。这种协调的开销可能会对设备的可用带宽和能量资源造成负担。这项研究的目的是通过智能通信管理来支持这种协作和协调，强调有效利用可用资源。随着用户在不同环境之间移动，这些移动分组设备(Moped)作为一个协调的局域网相互协作，为用户提供所需的移动服务。这种单个用户设备之间的协作和协调改变了什么是与用户通信的定义。对于轻便摩托车来说，与轻便摩托车中的任何设备通信意味着成功地连接到局域网，从而成功地连接到个人。为了更好地支持用户的需求，轻便摩托车可以与用户周围当前环境中的网络交互，以确定本地服务的可用性。研究人员的方法依赖于决策算法、服务和协议来确定哪些设备可以使用什么通信信道，以及关于这些信道的资源和质量信息。研究人员解决了在设计这种解决方案时面临的四个主要挑战。1)信道发现：研究人员提出了基于用户需求的智能服务发现协议的设计，并在拥有关于通信信道可用性的当前信息和用于获取该信息的资源开销(即带宽和功率)之间进行权衡。2)资源监控：研究人员提出了分布式资源信息库的设计，这是移动通信设备内部的数据库。管理将资源信息分发到MOPED中的设备的算法必须考虑网络的拓扑结构、每个设备的能量和带宽可用性以及每个设备实际需要信息的优先级。3)资源分配：研究人员提出了能够使用资源可用性信息来确定使用哪个以及多少个MOPED的外部信道来完成特定连接的智能传输和路由协议的设计。4)移动性管理：研究人员提出了移动性管理技术来提供外部用户与用户通信的能力，因此MOPED的设备，在现有技术的基础上，提出了基于主机移动性的移动性管理协议的设计，研究结果将使所有可用的通信渠道能够同时进行连接。这创造了一个非常强大的环境，在那里更容易保证完整的通信覆盖。它允许将轻便摩托车用于关键任务，如在任何时候保持连接非常重要的患者监护，尽管在传输的数据量以及该数据的重要性方面可能存在一定的灵活性。如果这种轻便摩托车的通信模式没有得到很好的监控，某些设备可能会由于低效的连接管理而不可接受地断电。

Advances in processor technology, both in increased processing power and decreased energyconsumption, have led to the creation of a new breed of small intelligent devices from tinylaptops, to PDAs, to smart phones, to wearable computers made from a collection of smallindependent devices. The advent of such devices and wearable computers brings to light newpossibilities and new needs, specifically: cooperation among devices and elimination of cables.The development of short-range radio technology, such as Bluetooth, enables the cooperation ofsuch devices over wireless links. As users collect multiple small computing devices, the amountof communication resources available to the user increases and so the demand for coordination ofresources between these devices increases. The overhead of this coordination may tax theavailable bandwidth and energy resources of the devices. The goal of this research is to supportsuch cooperation and coordination through intelligent communication management with anemphasis on the efficient use of available resources.As the user moves between different environments, these MObile grouPEd Devices (MOPEDs)cooperate as a coordinated local area network that provides the user the desired mobile services.This cooperation and coordination between a single user's devices changes the definition of whatit means to communicate with a user. With a MOPED, communicating with any of the devices inthe MOPED represents a successful connection to the local area network, and so to the individual.In order to better support the needs of the user, the MOPED may interact with networks in thecurrent environment surrounding the user in order to determine the availability of local services.The researchers' approach relies on decision algorithms; services and protocols for determining what communication channels are available to which devices, as well as resource and qualityinformation about such channels. The researchers address four major challenges faced in the design of such a solution.1) Channel Discovery: The researchers propose the design of intelligent service discovery protocols based on the requirements of the user and the tradeoff between having currentinformation about the availability of communication channels with the overhead inresources (i.e. bandwidth and power) used to acquire that information.2) Resource Monitoring: The researchers propose the design of a distributed resource informationrepository, which is a database internal to the MOPED. The algorithms governing thedissemination of resource information to devices in the MOPED must take intoconsideration the topology of the network, the energy and bandwidth availability of eachdevice, and the priority at which each device actually needs the information.3) Resource Allocation: The researchers propose the design of intelligent transport and routingprotocols able to use the resource availability information to determine which and howmany of the MOPED's external channels to use to complete a specific connection.4) Mobility Management: The researchers propose mobility management techniques to provide the ability for external users to communicate with the user, and so the devices of theMOPED, wherever it is currently connected to the Internet and propose the design ofmobility management protocols based on the current technology for host mobility.The results of the research will enable simultaneous connections through all availablecommunication channels. This creates a very robust environment, where it becomes easier toguarantee complete communication coverage. It allows using MOPEDs for critical tasks such aspatient monitoring where it is important to maintain connectivity at all time, through there may besome flexibility in the amount of data that is transferred as well as the importance of that data. Ifthe communication patterns of such a MOPED are not well monitored, certain devices mayunacceptably lose power due to inefficient connection management.