Disco Lab - Rutgers University

Goals

The next generation of computing systems will be embedded in the physical world and will penetrate every domain of our daily life. These systems, deployed in a virtually unbounded number and dynamically connected, will form a huge computing infrastructure which cannot be programmed using the current programming models and their associated system architectures. Our goal is to design and implement novel distributed programming models and system architectures to address the scale, heterogeneity, and volatility encountered in outdoor pervasive computing environments.

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Smart Messages

The goal of the Smart Messages project is to develop a system architecture for networks of embedded systems. A Smart Message is a user-defined distributed application based on execution migration, content-based naming, and self-routing. Smart Messages represent an attractive alternative to traditional message-passing distributed computing because they allow applications to adapt to highly dynamic network conditions. Additionally, they provide a solution for re-programming networks already deployed.

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Spatial Programming

The goal of the Spatial Programming project is to design a simple programming model for networks of embedded systems that enables programmers to easily develop distributed applications over dynamic networks of potentially mobile embedded systems. Central to Spatial Programming is the concept of spatial reference, which defines a virtual name space over networks of embedded systems using the expected locations and properties of these systems. Spatial Programming is implemented on top of a runtime system based on Smart Messages. This project is joint work with EEL Lab.

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Applications

EZCab is a real-life ubiquitous computing application that allows people to book nearby cabs using their cell phones or PDAs equipped qith short-range wireless interfaces. EZCab discovers and books free cabs using only vehicle-to-vehicle short range wireless communication.

TrafficView is a scalable traffic monitoring system that provides the drivers with a real-time view of the road traffic far beyond what they can physically see. The vehicles embedding TrafficView devices disseminate and gather traffic information using short-range wireless communication.

SMartphones for Interacting with Local Embedded Systems (SMILES) is a system architecture that allows users to interact with embedded systems located in their proximity using Smart Phones. Central to this architecture are the hybrid communication capabilities incorporated in the Smart Phones. They have the unique feature of incorporating short-range wireless and Internet connectivity in the same personal mobile device.

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Publications

EZCab: A Cab Booking Application Using Short-Range Wireless Communication
Peng Zhou, Tamer Nadeem, Porlin Kang, Cristian Borcea, and Liviu Iftode. Rutgers University Technical Report DCS TR 550, Submitted for publication March 2004.
Smart Phone: An Embedded System for Universal Interactions
Liviu Iftode, Cristian Borcea, Nishkam Ravi, Porlin Kang, and Peng Zhou
To Appear in Proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Workshop on Future Trends of Distributed Computing Systems (FTDCS 2004), May 2004.
Cooperative Computing in Sensor Networks
Liviu Iftode, Cristian Borcea, and Porlin Kang. To Appear in Handbook of Sensor Networks: Compact Wireless and Wired Sensing Systems, Mohammad Ilyas (ed.), CRC Press, 2004.
Smart Messages: A Distributed Computing Platform for Networks of Embedded Systems
Porlin Kang, Cristian Borcea, Gang Xu, Akhilesh Saxena, Ulrich Kremer, and Liviu Iftode. To Appear in the Special Issue on Mobile and Pervasive Computing, the Computer Journal, British Computer Society, Oxford University Press, June 2004
Spatial Programming using Smart Messages: Design and Implementation .
Cristian Borcea, Chalermek Intanagonwiwat, Porlin Kang, Ulrich Kremer, and Liviu Iftode. To Appear in Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS 2004), March 2004.
Portable Smart Messages Architecture for Ubiquitous Java-enabled Devices
Nishkam Ravi, Cristian Borcea, Porlin Kang, Liviu Iftode. Rutgers University Technical Report DCS-TR-536, November 2003.
Programming Computers Embedded in the Physical World .
Liviu Iftode, Cristian Borcea, Andrzej Kochut, Chalermek Intanagonwiwat, Ulrich Kremer. In Proceedings of the 9th IEEE International Workshop on Future Trends of Distributed Computing Systems (FTDCS 2003), May 2003.
Toward a Security Architecture for Smart Messages: Challenges, Solutions, and Open Issues .
Gang Xu, Cristian Borcea, and Liviu Iftode. To Appear in Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Mobile Distributed Computing (MDC '03), May 2003.
Self-Routing in Pervasive Computing Environments using Smart Messages
Cristian Borcea, Chalermek Intanagonwiwat, Akhilesh Saxena, and Liviu Iftode. Proceedings of the First IEEE Annual Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2003), March 2003.
Cooperative Computing for Distributed Embedded Systems
Cristian Borcea, Deepa Iyer, Porlin Kang, Akhilesh Saxena, and Liviu Iftode. Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS 2002), July 2002.
Smart Messages:A system Architecture for Large Networks of Embedded Systems
Phillip Stanley-Marbell,Cristian Borcea, Kiran Nagaraja, and Liviu Iftode. Position Summary in Proceedings of HotOS VIII, May 2001.
Scylla:A Smart Virtual Machine for Mobile Embedded Systems
Phillip Stanley-Marbell and Liviu Iftode. Proceedings of the Third IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, December 2000.

Presentations

Spatial Programming Using Smart Messages: Design and Implementation.
Presentation at 24th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS 2004), March 2004.

Programming Computers Embedded in the Physical World .
Presentation at FTDCS 2003, May 2003.
Self-Routing in Pervasive Computing Environments Using Smart Messages
Presentation at PerCom 2003, March 2003.
Cooperative Computing for Distributed Embedded Systems
Presentation at ICDCS 2002, July 2002.
Migratory-TCP and Smart Messages: Two Lightweight Migration Architectures for High Availability
Invited talk at Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, February 2002.
Middleware for Cooperative Computing in Large Ad Hoc Networks of Embedded Systems
Poster at Middleware 2001, November 2001. Abstract published by IEEE DS Online.
Cooperative computing: A computing model for large networks of embedded systems
Presentation at DIMACS Workshop on Pervasive Networking, May 2001.
Distributed Computing over Networks of Embedded Systems using Smart Messages
Presentation at NMADS, NYC Metropolitan Area Distributed Systems, April 2001.

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People

Faculty

Liviu Iftode, Ulrich Kremer

Graduate Students

Cristian Borcea, Porlin Kang, Gang Xu, Yang Ni, Peng Zhou, Nishkam Ravi

Undergraduate Students

Peter Stern

Collaborators

Chalermek Intanagonwiwat

Alumni

Deepa Iyer, Akhilesh Saxena, Phillip Stanley-Marbell

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Support

NSF
Information Technology Research (ANI 0121416) grant on Co-operative Computing for Distributed Embedded Systems (Joint award with Prof. Uli Kremer and Prof. Michael Hsiao)

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