Section: Software and Platforms

iBICOOP: Mobile Data Management in Multi-* Networks

Participant : Valérie Issarny [correspondent] .

Building on the lessons learned with the development of pervasive service oriented middleware and of applications using them, we have been developing the custom iBicoop middleware. iBicoop specifically aims at assisting the development of advanced mobile, collaborative application services by supporting interactions between mobile users.

Briefly, the iBicoop middleware addresses the challenges of easily accessing content stored on mobile devices, and consistent data access across multiple mobile devices by targeting both fixed and mobile devices, leveraging their characteristics (e.g., always on and unlimited storage for home/enterprise servers, ad hoc communication link between mobile devices), and by leveraging the capabilities of all available networks (e.g., ad hoc networks, Internet, Telecoms infrastructure networks). It also relies on Web and Telecoms standards to promote interoperability.

The base architecture of the iBicoop middleware consists of core modules on top of which we can develop applications that may arise in the up-coming multi-device, multi-user world:

• The Communication Manager provides mechanisms to communicate over different available network interfaces of a device — Bluetooth, WiFi, Cellular — and also using different technologies e.g., Web services, HTTP/TCP sockets, ad hoc mode.

• The Security Manager uses well-established techniques of cryptography and secure communication to provide necessary security.

• The Partnership Manager provides device or user information in the form of profiles.

• iBicoop relies on service location protocols for naming and discovery of nearby services on currently active network interfaces that support IP multicast.

• Besides normal file managing tasks, the Local File Manager gives the user clear cues to the files that have been replicated across multiple devices or shared among different users by using different icons.

The iBicoop middleware has been licensed by Ambientic  (http://www.ambientic.com/ ), a start-up that specifically develops innovative mobile distributed services on top of the iBicoop middleware that allows for seamless interaction and content sharing in today's multi-* networks.