Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr.

Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 1

PERVASIVE
COMPUTING &
UBIQUITOUS SERVICES
Dr. Rahul Banerjee
Professor, Computer Science Group
BITS-Pilani

Email: rahul@bits-pilani.ac.in
Home: http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/~rahul/
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 2

What is Pervasive or Ubiquitous

Computing?
• Pervasive Computing is the study of a computing technology that
pervades the users’ environment by making use of seamless
connectivity of multiple independent information devices
embedded in the environment of the users.
• This is done by:
• Making use of multiple independent information devices (fixed or
mobile, homogeneous or heterogeneous)
• Interconnecting these devices seamlessly through wireless or wired
computer communication networks
• Providing a class of computing / sensory / communication services to
a class of users, preferably transparently and can provide
personalized services while ensuring a fair degree of privacy / non-
intrusiveness.
• Pervasive Computing is also called Ubiquitous Computing or
Invisible Computing.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 3

Basic Elements of Pervasive Computing

• Pervasive Computing is
• A branch of computing that allows computing elements
to pervade user’s environment to help user(s) preferably
without being intrusive
• Involves elements of computing, sensing,
communication networking, services
• Demonstrates its ubiquitous nature by being freely
available <at times, almost invisible / transparent to the
user(s)
• Has hardware, firmware, software (OS, VM, Apps. Etc.
includes, services) as its basic elements
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 4

Learning Objectives
• Clear conceptual understanding of fundamentals involving all
elements and aspects of Pervasive Computing
• Learning design process of Pervasive Computing
Environments / Solutions
• Understanding hardware, software / services aspects involved
• Brief comparative study of protocols, languages, models &
technologies involved
• Studying a few real-life Pervasive Computing systems using
the case-study approach so as to get a feel of the existing
practice (preferably including ‘Best Current Practice’)
• Designing your own solution for a set of suggested
specifications
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 5

How shall this course be conducted?

• Lectures and Tutorials
• Lecture plan:
• 16 lectures of about 2-hour duration
• 04 Tutorial sessions (one after each set of four lectures)
• As provided in the Online version of the Course Handout at the course page of the WILP
portal / BITS-VU / Nalanda portal, if necessary, at the on-line version of the extended
Course Handout available on the course page
<Please refer to the course handout for the topic-wise information & references>

• Assignments (no marks attached): Conceptual, Case-study,

Design & Implementation types
• Online Quizzes (no marks attached): During the lectures /
tutorials
• Post-examination discussion on possible solution approaches
to the given problems
Tuesday, 28 September 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA 6

What is being done at BITS-Pilani?

• The BITS-LifeGuard Project
• Initiated in 1999
• Aims at building transparent life-saving system for saving human
lives from slow-reflexes based road accidents
• First formal presentation was made at the European Commission’s
NGNi Meeting at Brussels in 2001
• Partial funding derived from the EC and MSR
• Currently, co-working on complementary research issues with
Stanford University in USA and INRIA in France
• Project website: http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/WearComp/
• Currently, three PhD students are working on different aspects of
the problem
 Tuesday, 28 September 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA 7

What is being done at BITS-Pilani?

• The Project IPv6@BITS Project website:

http://ipv6.bits-pilani.ac.in/
• Initiated in 1998, this was India’s first IPv6 based research,
development and large-scale deployment project that
brought many firsts to the country

• The Project Grid-One Project website: http://idisovery.bits-

pilani.ac.in/GridOne/
• Initiated in 2003, focussed on building an IPv6-native
support based research grid for collaborative health-grid
• Partially funded by Microsoft Research, Redmond
 Tuesday, 28 September 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA 8

What is being done at BITS-Pilani?

• The Project NetFirst Project website: http://idisovery.bits-
pilani.ac.in/iCampus/
• Initiated in 2005, focussed on building web-browser-driven real
network research laboratories located remotely
• Started in collaboration with the MIT-Cambridge under the BITS-MIT
iCampus India initiative
• The Extended iSpace Project
• Started in 2007, in collaboration with the Centre for Design Research
and CS Department of Stanford University
• Focusses upon multi-platform distributed intelligent collaborative
learning spaces
• The BITS-SmartCampus Project
• Initiated in 2007, focussed on providing location-discovery, security-
monitoring and emergency health services
Tuesday, 28 September 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA 9

Some observations
• Ubiquitous / Pervasive Computing has come of
age even without our realizing it in quite a few
cases
• Major research, development and deployment
efforts have been undertaken the world over and
India is already very much part of it
• Around the globe, quite a few research-driven
graduate level and some undergraduate level
courses are on offer
• E-learning technologies are beginning to benefit
from the spin-offs of Pervasive Computing
research
The Microsoft Surface Computing
Technology
The Stanford iStuff Devices
iButtons iSlider
iStylus iMike

X10
RF
Input

iDog iMouse
Anoto Pen

iBuzzer

Output
iSpeaker iLight
Tuesday, 28 September 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani, INDIA 12

Some observations
• Ubiquitous / Pervasive Computing has come of
age even without our realizing it in quite a few
cases
• Major research, development and deployment
efforts have been undertaken the world over and
India is already very much part of it
• Around the globe, quite a few research-driven
graduate level and some undergraduate level
courses are on offer
• E-learning technologies are beginning to benefit
from the spin-offs of Pervasive Computing
research
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 (c) Dr. Rahul Banerjee, BITS-Pilani 13

References
• Text Book:
• Stefen Poslad: Ubiquitous Computing: Smart Devices, Environments and Interactions, Wiley, London,
2009. (Summary available online at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-
bin/summary/12293925/SUMMARY)
•
• Reference Material:
• Uwe Hansman, Lothar Merk, Martin S. Nicklous & Thomas Stober: Pervasive Computing, Second Edition,
Springer-Verlag, 2003. (ISBN 81-7722-468-9)
• Jochen Burkhardt, Horst Henn, Stefan Hepper, Thomas Schaec & Klaus Rindtorff: Pervasive Computing:
Technology and Architecture of Mobile Internet Applications, Pearson Education, New Delhi, 2006.
• P. Nicopolitidis, M. S. Obaidat, G. I. Papadimitriou & A. S. Pompportsis: Wireless Networks, John Wiley &
Sons, New Delhi, 2003. (ISBN 9812-53-033-9)
• Frank Adelstein, S K S Gupta, G G Richard & L Schwiebert: Fundamentals of Mobile and Pervasive
Computing, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, 2005.
• Asoke K Talukder & R R Yavagal: Mobile Computing, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, 2005.
• Daniel Amor: Internet Future Strategies: How Pervasive Computing Services Will Change the World,
Prentice-Hall PTR, 2008.
• In addition to these, you shall be expected to read as per the ‘Online Reading Advisories’ posted at the
course page from time to time.
•
• Course Home Page:
• URL for the course’s home page is: http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/rahul/PervasiveComputing/. Third week
onward the IntraBITS portal for the course shall be accessible to all registered students, in addition to the
resources at the course’s home page with effect from the third week of the course.
•