Mobile Plug-and-Play Architecture for Collaborative Hybrid Peer-to-Peer Applications Mika Ylianttila, Erkki Harjula, Timo Koskela MediaTeam Oulu Research Group University of Oulu, Finland firstname.lastname@ee.oulu.fi Otso Kassinen, Jukka Riekki * *Intelligent Systems Group University of Oulu, Finland firstname.lastname@ee.oulu.fi Abstract— Increasing heterogeneity of networks, services and applications emphasizes the need for middleware as an essential part of the information technology infrastructure. To implement novel 3G and beyond 3G mobile applications and services, the light-weight middleware utilizing application supernetworking- and hybrid peer-to-peer (P2P) – client/server concepts can be considered. Application supernetworking means collaboration of applications that utilize a set of common functionalities for sharing contextual information and managing sessions and connectivities. Hybrid P2P – client/server concept aims to optimize the network system features by exploiting the advantages of both the P2P and client/server domains. Hybrid scenarios could include e.g. utilizing secure client/server –based authentication for P2P networks. We have developed a Plug-and- Play Application Platform (PnPAP) mobile middleware to support novel application development and improved user experience. PnPAP provides support for seamless usage of multiple simultaneous applications, protocols and network connectivities. Required user interaction is reduced and new collaborative application scenarios, utilizing both P2P- client/server networks, are enabled. For the application developers, PnPAP enables faster development cycle by providing a unified API definition for protocol, session and connectivity management. Functionalities of the PnPAP core are controlled with state-machines, where the rules of operation can be dynamically updated over-the-air by the service provider. This enables managing the heterogeneity in a more flexible way than in the traditional systems. given in this document. Middleware, application collaboration, mobile peer-to-peer, application supernetworking, context and location awareness I. INTRODUCTION All-IP communication means that practically all network traffic on the end-to-end communication path is carried over the Internet Protocol (IP). It also enables using heterogeneous access networks with a unified service platform such as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) [1]. Defined in the Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP), the IMS system plays an important role in promoting global fixed-mobile convergence and service roaming. It provides authentication and billing functionalities for building new operator-friendly mobile services over a rich, convergent All-IP communication environment. While All-IP concept has strong market pull due to the popularity of IP based Internet applications, IMS is the technology needed to push their implementations to the operator network environment. Efficient implementation of All-IP applications and services can benefit from local (in device) optimization through middleware solutions. The importance of middleware solutions will continue to grow as long as computing and communication systems remain heterogeneous [2]. Middleware is the essential element that combines session and connectivity management into one unified platform that can be accessed through a well- defined Application Programming Interface (API). Application developers can utilize this interface to implement novel peer- to-peer and group communication applications into the operator network. Figure 1. Application supernetworking and communication middleware. Application supernetworking enables seamless collaboration of multiple simultaneous group based applications. For instance, a supernetworked navigation application can introduce supersession capability, which means that new application sessions such as file sharing can be initiated from the parent session. As illustrated in Fig. 1, application interactions can benefit from middleware support for optimized access to the heterogeneous All-IP (TCP/IP) networks and IMS service platform. Middleware can also provide local optimization to achieve the “always best connected” paradigm. The Applications Creation, Networking and Service Management (Application Supernetworking/All-IP) project was financed by TEKES Technology Agency of Finland), Nokia, Elektrobit, TeliaSonera Finland, Serv-It, and IBM. 2008 IEEE Congress on Services Part II 978-0-7695-3313-1/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE DOI 10.1109/SERVICES-2.2008.30 81 Authorized licensed use limited to: Oulu University. Downloaded on October 15, 2009 at 04:54 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.