Past project: Networking for Pervasive Computing

Goals

To assist industry in the development of standard specifications for pervasive computing devices. To validate protocols that will enable devices in a pervasive computing environment and to conduct performance evaluations on those technologies for coexistence. To identify technologies and standards gaps and overlaps, and to work with industry to resolve the issues.

Technical Approach

Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Wireless Personal Area Networks
NIST conducted validation, simulation, and analysis of WPAN protocols. NIST developed a formal behavioral description of the IEEE 802.15.1 specification using the ITU-T Specification and Description Language (SDL); The SDL is included as Annex B of the IEEE Std 802.15.1-2002. NIST developed a formal behavioral model for the IEEE 802.15.4 low rate specification, which is included as an Annex in the IEEE Std 802.15.4-2003. NIST also conducted a performance evaluation of the WPAN and WLAN technologies based on detailed simulation models developed in C and OPNET. The research focuses on the interference and coexistence of WLAN (IEEE 802.11) and WPAN devices in the same environment.
Service Discovery and Dynamic Protocols
NIST developed architectural models and characterized the behavioral and performance properties of selected emerging service-discovery protocols. We also designed and characterized self-adaptive mechanisms to improve performance of service-discovery protocols in volatile and hostile environments.

Presentations and Talks

"An Autonomic Failure-Detection Algorithm" 1/15/04 (Presentation at WoSP 2004).
"Self-Adaptive Discovery Mechanisms for Improved Performance in Fault-Tolerant Networks" 1/27/03 (presentation at DARPA FTN PI meeting).
"Understanding Self-Healing in Service Discovery Systems" 11/18/02 (presentation at WoSS 2002)
"Understanding Consistency Maintenance in Service Discovery Architectures in Response to Message Loss" , July 25, 2002 (talk at 4th International Workshop on Active Middleware Services)
"Scalable Software for Military Environments", July 25, 2002 (talk at DARPA FTN PI Meeting)
"Understanding Consistency Maintenance in Service Discovery Architectures during Communication Failure", July 25, 2002 (talk at 3rd International Workshop on Software Performance)
"Survivable Software for Harsh Environments" Self-Adaptive Discovery Mechanisms for Improved Performance in Fault-tolerant Networks January 18, 2002 (talk at DARPA FTN PI Meeting)
"Does Future Home Networking Look Blue?", Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Workshop on Network Appliances, pg 20-29, January 15-16, 2002, Gaithersburg, MD
"Painting Your Home Blue?", Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Workshop on Network Appliances, pg 205-214, January 15-16, 2002, Gaithersburg, MD
"Adaptive Software for a Changing World" Analyzing Properties of Service Discovery Protocols Using an Architecture-Based Approach December 12, 2001 (presentation at Working Conference on Complex and Dynamic Systems Architectures)
"Adaptive Software for a Changing World" Assessing Robustness Properties in Dynamic Discovery of Ad Hoc Network Services October 4, 2001 (invited talk in the Sun Microsystems Jini Tech-a-Tech Series)
"Survivable Software for Harsh Environments" Self-Adaptive Discovery Mechanisms for Optimal Performance in Fault-Tolerant Networks July 29, 2001 (talk at DARPA FTN PI Meeting)
"Adaptive Software for a Changing World" Assessing the state-of-the-art in Dynamic Discovery of Ad Hoc Network Services July 18, 2001 (briefing for ARDA)
"Defining a Technical Basis for Comparing and Contrasting Emerging Dynamic Discovery Protocols" May 2, 2001 (briefing for PC 2001)
"Applying ADLs to Assess Emerging Industry Specifications for Dynamic Discovery of Ad Hoc Network Services" January 29, 2001 (talk at DARPA DASADA PI meeting)
"Assessing the state-of-the-art in Dynamic Discovery of Ad Hoc Network Services" December 21, 2000 (briefing for the ARDA)

Related Publications

C. Dabrowski, K. Mills, and S. Quirolgico, "A Model-based Analysis of First-Generation Service Discovery Systems," NIST Special Publication 500-260, U.S. Department of Commerce, October 2005, 110 pages.
K. Mills, (editor), "Networking for Pervasive Computing," NIST Special Publication 500-259, U.S. Department of Commerce, July 2005.
C. Tan and K. Mills, "Performance Characterization of Decentralized Algorithms for Replica Selection in Distributed Object Systems," Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Software Performance, July 11-14, 2005, Palma de Majorca, Spain ACM Press, pp. 257-262.
N. Golmie, N. Chevrollier, O. Rebala, "Bluetooth and WLAN Coexistence: Challenges and Solutions," IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, December 2003.
N. Golmie, "Bluetooth Dynamic Scheduling and Interference Mitigation," ACM Mobile Networks, MONET Vol. 9, No. 1, February 2004.
N. Golmie, R. E. Van Dyck, A. Soltanian, A. Tonnerre, and O. Rebala, "Interference Evaluation of Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11b Systems," in ACM Wireless Networks 2003, Vol. 9, pp. 202-211.
N. Golmie, O. Rebala, "Bluetooth Adaptive Techniques to Mitigate Interference," Proceedings of IEEE GLOBECOM 2003, San Francisco, CA, December 2003. pp. 405-409.
N. Golmie, N. Chevrollier, and O. Rebala, "Bluetooth Adaptive Frequency Hopping and Scheduling," in the Proceedings of Military Communications, MILCOM 2003, Boston, MA, October 2003. pp 1138-1142.
N. Golmie and O. Rebala, "Techniques to Improve the Performance of TCP in a mixed Bluetooth and WLAN Environment," Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Communications, ICC, Anchorage, AK, May 2003. pp. 1181-1185.
K. Mills, S. Rose, S. Quirolgico, M. Britton, and C. Tan, "An Autonomic Failure-Detection Algorithm", Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Software Performance (WoSP 2004), January 14-16, 2004, San Francisco, California, ACM Press, p. 79.
K. Bowers, K. Mills, S. Quirolgico, and S. Rose, "Self-Managed Leasing for Distributed Systems", Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Algorithms and Architectures for Self-Managing Systems, co-sponsored by ACM SIGMETRICS, June 2003.
C. Dabrowski, K. Mills, and A. Rukhin, "Performance of Service-Discovery Architectures in Response to Node Failures", Proceedings of the 2003 International Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice (SERP'03), CSREA Press, June 2003, pp. 95-101.
S. Rose, K. Bowers, S. Quirolgico, and K. Mills, "Improving Failure Responsiveness in Jini Leasing", Proceedings of the 3rd DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Exposition (DISCEX-III 2003), IEEE Computer Society, April, 2003, Vol. II, pp. 103-105.
K. Mills and C. Dabrowski, "Adaptive Jitter Control for UPnP M-Search", Proceedings of ICC 2003, May 11-15, 2003 in Anchorage, Alaska.
K. Bowers, K. Mills, and S. Rose, "Self-adaptive Leasing for Jini" Proceedings of the IEEE PerCom 2003, Forth Worth, Texas, March 23-26, 2003, pp. 539-542.
C. Dabrowski and K. Mills, "Understanding Self-healing in Service Discovery Systems", Proceedings of the First ACM SigSoft Workshop on Self-healing Systems (WOSS '02), November 18-19, 2002, Charleston, South Carolina, ACM Press, pp. 15-20.
C. Dabrowski, K. Mills, and J.Elder, "Understanding Consistency Maintenance in Service Discovery Architectures in Response to Message Loss" , Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Active Middleware Services, IEEE Computer Society, July 2002, pp. 51-60.
C. Dabrowski, K. Mills, and J.Elder, "Understanding Consistency Maintenance in Service Discovery Architectures during Communication Failure" Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Software Performance, ACM, July 2002, pp. 168-178
A. Soltanian and R. E. Van Dyck, "Performance of the Bluetooth System in Fading Dispersive Channels and Interference," Proceedings of IEEE Globecom, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 2001.
N. Golmie, "Interference in the 2.4 GHz Band," Proceedings of the First International Conference on Applications and Services in Wireless Networks, ASW’2001, Evry, France, July 25-27, 2001, pp.187-199.
N. Golmie, N. Chevrollier, I. ElBakkouri, "Interference Aware Bluetooth Packet Scheduling," Proceedings of Global Telecommunications Conference, 2001. GLOBECOM '01. IEEE Volume: 5, 2001, Page(s): 2857 -2863
Kevin L. Mills and Jean Scholtz, "Situated Computing: The Next Frontier from HCI Research", Chapter 24 in Human-Computer Interaction in the New Millennium, (John M. Carroll,editor), ACM Press, Addison-Wesley, New York, 2002.
K. Mills and A. Dima, "Smart-space Researchers: An Interview with Kevin Mills and Alden Dima", ;login: The Magazine of Usenix & SAGE, Volume 25, Number 4, July 2000, pp. 25-28.
C. Dabrowski and K. Mills,"Analyzing Properties and Behavior of Service Discovery Protocols using an Architecture-based Approach," Proceedings of Working Conference on Complex and Dynamic Systems Architecture, December 2001. .
N. Golmie, N. Chevrollier, "Techniques to Improve Bluetooth Performance in Interference Environments.," Proceedings of MILCOM 2001, October 28-31, 2001, McLean, VA.
N. Golmie, R. E. Van Dyck, and A. Soltanian, "Interference of Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11: Simulation Modeling and Performance Evaluation," Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Workshop on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems, July 2001, Rome, Italy.
N. Golmie, F. Mouveaux, "Interference in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band: Impact on the Bluetooth Access Control Performance," Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Communications (ICC'01), June 11-15, 2001, Helsinki, Finland.
A. Soltanian and R. E. Van Dyck, "Physical Layer Performance for Coexistence of Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11b," Proc. 2001 Virginia Tech Symposium on Wireless Personal Communications, Blacksburg, VA, June 2001.

Related Simulation Models

Much of the research on this project required development and application of relevant simulation models. In some cases, models were developed in standard programming languages and in other cases models were developed in the context of modeling packages, including Opnet, Rapide, and SLX. More information on these modeling packages can be found on the web at the links listed below. NOTE: Disclaimer for NIST Developed Software

OPNET: http://www.opnet.com/
Rapide: (developed by D.C. Luckham and students at Stanford but no longer maintained nor available for download)
SLX: http://www.wolverinesoftware.com/

Models Related to Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs)

Models Related to Service Discovery Protocols (SDPs)

Customers

Collaborators