Implementation of a platform that provides a hardware and software framework from physical communication through distributed processing

• Grant number: 92/03507-0
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• Start date: May 01, 1993
• End date: September 30, 1997
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Industrial Electronics, Electronic Systems and Controls
• Principal Investigator: Maurício Ferreira Magalhães
• Grantee: Maurício Ferreira Magalhães
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação (FEEC). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant(s): 97/00877-5 - An agent-based approach for quality of service negotiation and management in distributed multimedia systems., AR.EXT; 96/06079-0 - Agents skills and their roles in mobile computing and personal comunications., AR.EXT; 96/02007-5 - Towards an architecture for distributed multimedia databases., AR.EXT; + associated grants 95/09050-0 - An object group model and its implementation to support cooperative applications on corba., AR.EXT; 95/00387-2 - The federative trader model of the multiware platform., AR.BR; 93/02966-4 - Programming flexible distributed real-time systems., AR.EXT; 93/02617-0 - Demos: a distributed decision - making open support system., AR.EXT - associated grants

Abstract

This project intends to implement a platform, named Multiware, that provides a hardware and software framework from physical communication through distributed processing. The funcional specifications of the platform are based on RM-ODP (Reference Model - Open Distributed Processing) and CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture). The Multiware platform is composed of three layers: basic software/ hardware, middleware and groupware. The basic software/hardware is composed of an operating system and communication protocols. This layer provides no distributed system support. The middleware layer is responsible to provide distributed processing facilities to the groupware layer and to the applications. This layer is composed of two sublayers: 1) multimedia Processing sublayer that allows the exchange of real-time multimedia information with a specified quality of service, and 2) ODP sublayer composed of two levels: commercial distributed systems (ORBIX) and ODP level, the latter aggregates ODP functionalities to the commercial distributed system. The groupware layer provides the functionalities demanded by different classes of applications, like CSCW (Computing Support to Colaborative Work), DAI (Distributed Artificial Intelligence), among others. Typical services supported by this layer are: dialog management, interactions protocols and handling of multimedia documents. (AU)