SOMA Documents: Abstracts

A. Corradi, M. Cremonini, C. Stefanelli Melding Abstractions with Mobile Agents CIA '98, Paris, France, July 1998, Cooperative Information Agents II, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence LNAI, Springer-Verlag.
Abstract. Mobile Agents (MA) seems to be the most suitable technology for distributed systems to integrate the Internet in a synergic way. One of the problems that should be faced when considering MA models for distributed applications is the lack of a thorough model capable of describing the Internet world composed of interconnected networks, each of them with its peculiar policies (for administrative, management and security purposes). We propose a Mobile Agent system based on a model designed to consider and favour aggregations of abstract and protected (network) domains: the use of this model makes easy the development of Internet applications. The paper describes the MAMA system (Melding Abstractions and Mobile Agents) and its implementation in the Java language. An application for distributed monitoring provides the results achieved within the MAMA system.
A. Corradi, M. Cremonini, C. Stefanelli Locality Abstractions and Security in a Mobile Agent Environment

WET ICE '98, Stanford University, California, USA, June 1998, Collaboration in Presence of Mobility, Conference Proceedings, IEEE Computer Society Press.

Abstract. Mobile Agents have achieved wide interest for distributed applications because of their flexibility and capacity of adapting to very different scenarios, a common situation over the Internet. The rapid growth of the area has forced to focus more on rapid prototyping than on other aspects that are still only partially faced. The paper addresses two main concepts connected with the Mobile Agent model: locality abstractions and security. We propose a Mobile Agent environment that introduces the idea of locality to achieve the enforcement of both abstraction and security. The use of this model permits to develop Internet applications that answer both requirements in an integrated way. The paper describes the MA environment and presents some results of its implementation in the Java language. An application for distributed monitoring is an example of the capacity of rapid prototyping.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli A Secure and Open Mobile Agent Programming Environment Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Autonomous Decentralized Systems (ISADS '99), Tokyo, Japan, March 21-23, 1999, pp. 238-245, Conference Proceedings, IEEE Computer Society Press.
Abstract. The Mobile Agent technology is suitable for applications in open, distributed and heterogeneous environ-ments such as the Internet and the Web, because it can overcome some limits of traditional approaches. The paper describes a Secure and Open Mobile Agent (SOMA) programming environment with two main design objectives that are security and interoperability. On the one hand, SOMA is based on a thorough security model and provides a wide range of tools and mechanisms to build and enforce flexible security policies. On the other hand, the SOMA framework can interoperate with differ-ent application components designed with different programming styles. SOMA grants interoperability by closely considering compliance with CORBA, the most diffused standard in the area of Object-Oriented components. SOMA has been adopted as a platform to develop several distributed applications in the area of network and sys-tems management, CSCW, and distributed and heteroge-neous information systems.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli CORBA Solutions for Interoperability in Mobile Agent Environments

Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Distributed Objects & Applications (DOA'00), Antwerp, Belgium, Sept. 21-23, 2000, pp. 283-292, IEEE Computer Society Press.
Abstract. The Mobile Agent (MA) paradigm proposes several attractive solutions to deal with the problems of network-centric programming. Despite the availability of several MA platforms, there are still only a few MA-based dis-tributed services. The paper claims that the lack of interoperability is one of the major obstacles to the large-scale diffusion of the MA paradigm, and discusses solu-tions to permit the interworking between heterogeneous MA frameworks and other systems, whether MA-based or not, via compliance with either accepted or emerging interoperability standards. In particular, we focus on compliance with CORBA, the accepted standard for OO components, but also with MASIF and FIPA, respectively, the OMG specification for the support of agent mobility and management, and the framework for standard lan-guages and protocols in agent communication. The paper also reports performance results of CORBA-based interoperability in the SOMA programming framework: the presented costs, measured for a systems management application, show the feasibility of the adopted interoperability solutions.
P. Bellavista, C. Cavallari, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli Mobile Agents for Internet Services: Directions of Standardization and their Implementation in SOMA

Proceedings of the 37th Conference of the Associazione Italiana per l'Informatica ed il Calcolo Automatico (AICA'99), Abano Terme, Italy, pp. 19-31, September 27-29, 1999.

Abstract. One of the main directions in the recent evolution of information systems has certainly been the expansion of the Internet and the diffusion of the Web technology for the realization of distributed applications. The traditional models for designing, deploying and managing distributed services, based on the client/server paradigm, are not suitable to face the new types of problems raised by the globality of the Internet: open, global and heterogeneous environments force to reconsider scalability, fault-tolerance and service adaptability to on-line system properties and to dynamically specified user requirements. This scenario has justified the interest for programming paradigms based on code mobility, and in particular for the Mobile Agent (MA) one. To accelerate and facilitate the acceptance and development of MA-based commercial services, it is necessary that the several proposed MA platforms overcome their heterogeneous barriers to interoperability, by providing mechanisms and tools to permit the interaction between different MA systems and the interworking between agents and legacy resources. The paper describes our guidelines to make an MA platform interoperable via compliance with the OMG standards CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) and MASIF (Mobile Agent System Interoperability Facility). In particular, it presents which design and implementation choices have been made to obtain this compliance in SOMA. Finally, the paper reports some performance measures that permit to evaluate the costs of interoperability mechanisms if compared with the corresponding proprietary ones.
A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli, F. Tarantino How to Employ Mobile Agents in Systems Management Proceedings of the Third International Conference on The Practical Applications of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Technology (PAAM'98), London, UK, March 23-25, 1998. Pages 17-26.
Abstract. The mobile agents technology is suited to express the management of distributed systems, by overcoming the limits of the traditional manager/agent model. In addition, mobile agents can easily integrate with the Internet scenario and the Web. The paper describes the MAMAS (Mobile Agents for Management Applications and Systems) tool implemented with a mobile agent technology. MAMAS has been developed with the goal of designing monitoring tools for the whole system and of introducing automatically correction actions. In addition, one operator can decide to dynamic modify the predefined management strategies. MAMAS has been implemented in a mobile agent framework, capable of modelling the Internet world composed of interconnected networks, each of them with its peculiar policies (for administrative, management and security purposes). MAMAS and the supporting framework has been implemented in Java.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli An Open Secure Mobile Agent Framework for Systems Management Journal of Network and Systems Management (JNSM), Special Issue on "Mobile Agent-based Network and Service Management", Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 323-339, September 1999.
Abstract. The Mobile Agent (MA) technology is gaining importance in the distributed manage-ment of networks and services for heterogeneous environments. MA-based management systems could represent an interesting alternative to traditional tools built upon the client/server model, either SNMP- or CMIP- based. Two main requirements currently limit the acceptance of MA solutions for management: the need of interoperability and the request for security. Without security, management systems cannot suit global un-trusted environments, such as the Internet; without interoperability, they cannot interact with existing tools and legacy systems. The paper describes an MA-based management system with security and interoperability as the two main design objectives. It is an open management framework that grants interoperability by providing compliance with CORBA, the most diffused standard in the area of Object-Oriented components. In ad-dition, it is based on a thorough security model and provides a wide range of tools and mechanisms to build and enforce flexible security policies.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli, F. Tarantino Mobile Agents for Web-based Systems Management

Internet Research, MCB University Press, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 360-371, November 1999.
Abstract. The increasing dimension and heterogeneity of global Web systems make increasingly difficult their management with tools based on the client/server model. The Mobile Agent technology overcomes the limits of traditional approaches and proposes solutions suitable for the management of distributed and heterogeneous Internet-based systems. The paper describes the MAMAS (Mobile Agents for the Management of Applications and Systems) environment and its implementation with a Mobile Agent technology. MAMAS can adapt to organizations with very different interconnected architectures and with different policies for administration and management. The environment has the goal of monitoring the whole system, of introducing dynamic corrective actions and of modifying system policies at run-time. MAMAS achieves these goals by answering both the security guideline necessary in untrusted environments such as the Internet and the guideline of compliance to standards. The choice of Java as implementation language has permitted to achieve portability, to employ the language security features, and to provide Web accessibility. The CORBA framework has allowed interoperability with other existing management platforms.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli An Integrated Management Environment for Network Resources and Services

IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication (JSAC), Special Issue on "Recent Advances in Network Management and Operations", Vol. 18, No. 5, pp.676-685, May 2000.

Abstract. Technological and human factors have contributed to increase the complexity of the network management problem. Heterogeneity and globalization of network resources on the one hand, increasing user expectations for flexible and easy-to-use environments on the other hand, suggest to face the management problem in entirely novel ways. Several research efforts rec-ognize the need for integrated solutions to manage both network resources and services in open, global and untrusted environments. In addition, these solutions should permit the coex-istence of different management models and should interoperate with legacy systems. In the paper, we define a general architecture based on a Distributed Processing Environment (DPE) that offers a large set of facilities to the application level. We have developed the MESIS management environment shaped after the above architecture and its DPE facilities with the mobile agents technology. MESIS handles in a uniform way both resources and services, and focuses on two crucial properties: interoperability to overcome heterogeneity, and security to grant users safe and protected operations. The Agent Interoperability Facility supports compliance with CORBA-based management systems and with MASIF agent plat-forms. The Agent Security Facility provides authentication, integrity, privacy, authorization, and secure interoperation with CORBA systems.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli A Mobile Agent Infrastructure for Terminal,
User and Resource Mobility

Proceedings of the IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2000), Honolulu, Hawaii, April 10-14, 2000, pp. 877-890, IEEE Press.
Abstract. The telecommunication and the Internet scenarios have pointed out the possibility of accessing resources and services while moving in open distributed global systems. Mobility should allow users to access services and to maintain their preferred work-ing environment independently of their current point of attachment, and has moti-vated the investigation of new models and solutions. The mobile agent technology is intrinsically suitable to describe, model and implement mobility. The paper describes how a mobile agent framework, called SOMA, can provide an infrastructure to sup-port not only the traditional concepts of terminal and user mobility but also the mo-bility of resources in general. SOMA permits terminal mobility by introducing the mobile place abstraction that represents a mobile host for agent execution, and user mobility by supporting the virtual home environment service. SOMA supports re-source mobility via the resource discovery service that can preserve client/server re-lationships among SOMA resources and users independently of current positions. The paper gives also experimental results about the costs associated with the main mechanisms for supporting terminal, user, and resource mobility.
A. Corradi,R. Montanari, C. Stefanelli Mobile Agents Integrity in E-commerce Applications

Proceedings of the 19th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshop (ICDCS'99), Austin, Texas, May 31-June 5, 1999, pp. 59 - 64, Conference Proceedings, IEEE Computer Society Press.
Abstract. The Mobile Agent (MA) paradigm seems able to support effectively distributed applications in open and hetero-geneous environments, and application areas such as e-commerce appears to be of particular interest. Mobility, autonomy and easy personalization are distinguished properties of the MA paradigm that can support e-commerce transactions by helping in information gathering, filtering, and negotiation. However, MA systems, despite these offered advantages, experience a limited usage because they lack of a comprehensive security framework. Only a full answer to the requirement of protection for both execution sites and mobile shopping agents can permit the adoption of MA solutions in the electronic market. This paper describes an MA environment, called Secure and Open Mobile Agent (SOMA), that supports secure and open e-commerce applications. In particular, the paper focuses on how mobile shopping agents can be protected from malicious behavior of execution sites and describes a distributed multiple-hops integrity protocol integrated in SOMA.
A. Corradi,M. Cremonini, R. Montanari, C. Stefanelli Mobile Agents and Security: Protocols for Integrity

Proceedings of the Second IFIP WG 6.1 International Working Conference on Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems (DAIS'99),Helsinki, Finland, June 28-July 1, 1999, pp.177-190, Kluwer Academic Publishers
Abstract. The Mobile Agent paradigm seems to be a promising and innovative technology for developing applications in open, distributed and heterogeneous environments because it can overcome some of the limits of traditional Client/Server approaches. Many application areas, such as e-commerce, mobile computing, network management and information retrieval can benefit from the application of the MA technology. The widespread use of mobile agents is currently mainly limited by the lack of security, a requirement that should be faced when dealing with the Internet untrusted environment. The paper focuses on the problem of ensuring the integrity of agents in these environments and presents a range of solution strategies. In particular, it describes and compares two different approaches to achieve agent integrity. The first one makes use of a Trusted Third Party entity, while the second one is based on a distributed protocol that does not assume any secure collaborating entity. The two solutions suite different areas, and we have integrated them in a flexible support for a wide range of applications, called Secure and Open Mobile Agent (SOMA).
A. Corradi,M. Cremonini, R. Montanari, C. Stefanelli Mobile Agents Integrity for E-Commerce Applications Information Systems, Special Issue on Information Systems Support For Electronic Commerce, Vol. IS24, No.6, pp. 519-533, November 1999.
Abstract. - The Mobile Agent (MA) paradigm proposes a new approach for designing applications in open and heterogeneous distributed environments. Several application areas can benefit from the adoption of the MA technology, because it can support electronic commerce transactions and help in information gathering, filtering, and negotiation. MA solutions provide mobility, autonomy and easy personalisation, but still lack a comprehensive and widely accepted security framework. Only a full answer to the requirement of protection for both execution sites and mobile shopping agents can leverage the adoption of MA solutions in the electronic commerce area. This paper proposes an MA environment to support secure and open electronic commerce applications. In particular, the paper focuses on how mobile shopping agents can be protected from malicious behaviour of execution sites and presents a range of solution strategies. The first solution makes use of a Trusted Third Party entity, while the second one is based on a distributed approach that does not assume the presence of trusted entities. In addition, these two solutions are integrated in a combined one. The paper compares the different approaches and describes their implementation performance.
A. Corradi, R. Montanari, C. Stefanelli Mobile Agents Protection in the Internet Environment Proceedings of the COMPSAC'99, IEEE Computer Society Press, Phoenix, October '99.
Abstract. The Mobile Agent (MA) paradigm seems to be a promis-ing technology for developing applications in open, distributed and heterogeneous environments, such as the Internet. Mobile agents can overcome some of the limits of the traditional Client/Server model and can easily integrate with the web to improve application accessibil-ity. Many application areas, such as electronic com-merce, mobile computing, network management and information retrieval can benefit from the application of the MA technology. However, a wider diffusion of MA is currently limited by the lack of a comprehensive security framework. Answering to the requirement of protection for both execution sites and mobile agents can boost the acceptance of the MA paradigm in the Internet environ-ment. This paper describes an MA environment, called Secure and Open Mobile Agent (SOMA), that is based on a thorough security model and provides a wide range of tools and mechanisms to build and enforce flexible secu-rity policies. In particular, we focus on the problem of how mobile agents can be protected from malicious behavior of execution sites and we propose a distributed multiple-hops integrity protocol for mobile agent protec-tion, fully integrated in SOMA.
D. Berbecaru, A. Corradi, A. Lioy, F. Maino, R. Montanari, C. Stefanelli A Flexible Management Framework for Certificate Status Validation Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Information Security (SEC'00), Kluwer Academic Publisher, Beijing, August 00.
Abstract. Public key cryptography is widely recognised as the technology to develop effective authentication, integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation services. The provision of public key-based security services for complex and large scale organisations requires a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) in charge of securely managing cryptographic keys/certificates. An essential PKI service is the certificate status validation (CSV) system that supports the publishing and the consistent usage of certificate status information for wide range of applications. Several CSV solutions, such as Certificate Revocation Lists or the On-line Certificate Status Protocol, are available, but none can meet the requirements for all applications, in particular of timeliness and performance. The lack of a comprehensive CSV solution calls for the development of a flexible framework that can integrate all available validation mechanisms and permit the selection of alternative validation strategies, depending on application requirements. The paper describes this framework that provides PKI users with a flexible, dynamic and transparent CSV support. In addition, the paper claims that the framework flexibility, dynamicity and transparency can greatly benefit from the adoption of the Mobile Agent (MA) technology because it exhibits the same intrinsic features, by presenting an MA-based prototype for CSV.
A. Corradi, E. Lupu, R. Montanari, M. Sloman, C. Stefanelli A Flexible Access Control Service for Java Mobile Code Proceedings of the 16th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, (ACSAC00), New Orleans, Luisiana, IEEE Computer Society Press, December 00.
Abstract. Mobile Code (MC) technologies provide appealing solutions for the development of Internet applications. For instance, Java technology facilitates dynamic loading of application code from remote servers into heterogeneous clients distributed all over the Internet. However, executing foreign code that has been loaded from the network raises significant security concerns which limit the diffusion of these technologies. Substantial work has already been done to provide security solutions for protecting both hosting nodes and mobile code. For example, the Java security architecture evolved from a rigid sandbox model to a more flexible solution where downloaded code can perform any kind of operations, depending on its source location and signature. However, the most widespread security solutions for MC platforms today do not support the sophisticated security policies required in modern inter-organisational environments. This requires expressive languages to specify the policy and flexible mechanisms for policy implementation which cater for code mobility. This paper shows how access control policies for MC based applications can be specified in a concise and declarative language called Ponder and how these policies can be implemented within the Java security architecture.
A. Corradi, R. Montanari, C. Stefanelli Security Issues in Mobile Agent Technology Proceedings of the 7th IEEE Workshop on Future Trends of Distributed Computing Systems (FTDCS'99), Cape Town, South Africa, December 99, IEEE Computer Society Press.
Abstract. The Mobile Agent (MA) paradigm seems to be a promis-ing technology for developing applications in open, distributed and heterogeneous environments, such as the Internet. Many application areas, such as electronic commerce, mobile computing, network management and information retrieval can benefit from the application of the MA technology. The exploitation of mobile agents offer several peculiar advantages, such as reduction of network latency, asynchronous execution, robust and fault tolerant behavior. However, a wider diffusion of MA is currently limited by the lack of a comprehensive secu-rity framework that can address the security concerns arising in mobile agent applications providing efficiency at the same time. This paper describes an MA environ-ment, called Secure and Open Mobile Agent (SOMA), that offers a wide range of security tools and mechanisms aimed at protecting both execution sites and agents against reciprocal malicious behavior. In particular, SOMA integrates several possible solutions to ensure agent integrity. The paper presents an electronic market-place prototype based on SOMA where we have validated the efficiency and scalability of our security framework.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, D. Cotroneo, S. Russo Integrating Mobile Agent Infrastructures with CORBA-based Distributed Multimedia Applications

Proceedings of the 9th Euromicro Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Processing (PDP 2001), Mantova, Italy, Feb. 7-9, 2001, IEEE Computer Society Press.

Abstract. The increased computing power and the enhanced connectivity of current open computing systems are encouraging the deployment of new classes of services both centered around dynamically changing user requirements and based on the exploitation of the Internet infrastructure. Distributed Multimedia Applications (DMAs) are a typical class of services with challenging requirements in terms of resource demand, dynamicity and QoS adapta-tion. The paper claims that distributed objects and mobile agents can complement each other to provide a flexible middleware for DMAs, and describes the case study of MADAMA (Mobile Agent-based Distributed Architecture for Multimedia Applications). MADAMA adopts mobile agents to simplify the distribution of service control and to provide location-aware adaptability. In addition, MADAMA is compliant with CORBA to achieve large accessibility and interoperability.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, A. Tomasi The Mobile Agent Technology to Support and to Access Museum Information

Proceedings of the 2000 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC2000) Como, Italy, March 19-21, 2000.
Abstract. The global scenario put together by communication networks determines new opportunities towards the realization of Internet-based distributed services in many complex and composite application areas, such as the access to museum information. Solution complexity mainly stems from the heterogeneous representation formats of data, their geographical distribution, the large number of data sources involved, and the user requirements for personal customization and optimization of the accessed service. The paper claims that flexible museum information access services require a middleware-level approach and the implementation of a distributed support infrastructure. Within the MOSAICO project, we have realized the VM (Virtual Museum) framework on top of the SOMA (Secure and Open Mobile Agent) programming environment. Mobile agents have been chosen for their intrinsic properties of autonomy, asynchronicity, dynamicity of distribution and behavior, adaptability to available system resources. We have designed the VM to accommodate different usage scenarios: VM users can play different roles with different expertise levels; they can ask the VM infrastructure for differently complex features, from simple Web accessibility to user accounting for data resource consumption, from data customization via user profiling to automatic update of subscripted query results. The first prototype, apart from the feasibility of the approach, has already shown the potential and the flexibility of the mobile agent infrastructure to adapt to both different user requirements and different resource availability.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli Protection and Interoperability for Mobile Agents: a Secure and Open Programming Environment

IEICE Transactions on Communications, Special Issue on "Autonomous Decentralized Systems", Vol. E83-B, No. 5, pp. 961-972, May 2000.

Abstract. The Mobile Agent technology helps in the development of applications in open, distributed and heterogeneous environments such as the Internet and the Web, but it has to answer to the requirements of security and interoperability to achieve wide acceptance. The paper focuses on security and interoperability, and describes a Secure and Open Mobile Agent (SOMA) programming environment where both requirements are main design objectives. On the one hand, SOMA is based on a thorough security model and provides a wide range of mechanisms and tools to build and enforce flexible security policies. On the other hand, the SOMA framework permits to interoperate with different application components designed with different programming styles. SOMA grants interoperability by closely considering compliance with the OMG CORBA and MASIF standards. SOMA has already shown the feasibility and effectiveness of the approach for the development of flexible and adaptive applications in several areas, particularly in network and systems management.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli Mobile Agent Middleware to Support Mobile Computing

IEEE Computer, Vol. 34, No. 3, pages 73-81, March 2001.
Abstract. Telecommunication systems and the Internet are converging toward an integrated scenario to permit the development and the access to mobile computing services. Mobility permits users to connect to the Internet from ubiquitous and heterogeneous access points while preserving their personal preferences (user mobility), and allows to connect/disconnect portable computing devices (terminal mobility). A still open issue is to provide mobile users and terminals with the access to local/remote resources and services, independently of current location (mobile access to resources). These mobility issues require an integrated middleware that can significantly benefit from a Mobile Agent (MA) implementation. The paper describes the three services needed to support user mobility, terminal mobility and mobile access to resources, termed respectively User Virtual Environment, Mobile Virtual Terminal and Virtual Resource Management. We have implemented these services as add-on modules in a general-purpose middleware for MA-based Internet services.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, C. Stefanelli How to Monitor and Control Resource Usage in Mobile Agent Systems

To be published in the proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Distributed Objects & Applications (DOA'01), Rome, Italy, September 18-20, 2001, IEEE Computer Society Press.

Abstract. The Mobile Agent technology has already shown its advantages, but at the same time has already remarked new problems currently limiting its diffusion in commercial environments. A key issue is to control the operations that foreign mobile agents are authorized to perform on hosting execution environments. It is necessary not only to rule the MA access to resources but also to control resource usage of admitted agents at execution time, for instance to protect against possible denial-of-service attacks. The paper presents a solution framework for the on-line monitoring and control of Java-based MA platforms. In particular, it describes the design and implementation of MAPI, an on-line monitoring component that we have integrated within the SOMA system. The paper shows how to use MAPI as the building block of a distributed monitoring tool that gives application- and kernel-level information about the state of mobile agents and their resource usage, thus enabling the enforcement of management policies on MA resource consumption.
P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, R. Montanari, C. Stefanelli An Active Middleware to Control QoS Level of Multimedia Services

To be published in the proceedings of the 8th IEEE Workshop on Future Trends of Distributed Computing Systems (FTDCS'01), Bologna, Italy, October 31-November 2, 2001, IEEE Computer Society Press.

Abstract. The provision of novel Internet services has both to specify and to maintain differentiated Quality-of-Service (QoS) levels. Services should tailor to different user QoS preferences together with the differentiated quality prop-erties deriving from servers and access points and de-vices, from workstations connected with high-capacity networks to wearable devices exploiting limited-capacity wireless links. The paper claims that service provision with negotiated and controlled QoS over best-effort net-works calls for a support infrastructure that activates in-termediate nodes along the path between clients and serv-ers. In fact, the paper proposes MASQ, an active middle-ware solution for the QoS management of Video-on-Demand (VoD) streaming. At negotiation time, MASQ ex-ploits code mobility to establish an active path between the requesting client and the VoD server chosen to tailor VoD flows based on user profiles and device properties. At provision time, MASQ dynamically controls the offered QoS level to adapt locally when and where network re-source availability changes. MASQ significantly benefits from dynamic and flexible programmability stemming from the employment of high-level policies.
F. Baschieri, P. Bellavista, A. Corradi, Mobile Agents for QoS Tailoring, Control and Adaptation over the Internet: the ubiQoS Video on Demand Service

To be published in the proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Applications and the Internet (SAINT'02), Nara, Japan, January 28-February 1, 2002, IEEE Computer Society Press.

Abstract. The provision of novel Internet services has both to specify and to maintain differentiated Quality-of-Service (QoS) levels. Services should tailor to different user QoS preferences together with the differentiated quality prop-erties deriving from servers and access points and de-vices, from workstations connected with high-capacity networks to wearable devices exploiting limited-capacity wireless links. The paper claims that service provision with negotiated and controlled QoS over best-effort net-works calls for a support infrastructure that activates in-termediate nodes along the path between clients and serv-ers. In fact, the paper proposes MASQ, an active middle-ware solution for the QoS management of Video-on-Demand (VoD) streaming. At negotiation time, MASQ ex-ploits code mobility to establish an active path between the requesting client and the VoD server chosen to tailor VoD flows based on user profiles and device properties. At provision time, MASQ dynamically controls the offered QoS level to adapt locally when and where network re-source availability changes. MASQ significantly benefits from dynamic and flexible programmability stemming from the employment of high-level policies.
 
Page updated on
In case of problems, or if you find any bug, please contact us.