Tuple Space Middleware for Wireless Networks
- Paolo Costa ,
- Luca Mottola ,
- Amy L. Murphy ,
- Gian Pietro Picca
Chapter 11, in Invited contribution to the book Middleware for Network Eccentric and Mobile Applications, Benoit Garbinato, Hugo Miranda, and Louis Rodrigues eds., Springer Press, 2009.
Published by Springer Press | 2009 | Invited contribution to the book Middleware for Network Eccentric and Mobile Applications, Benoit Garbinato, Hugo Miranda, and Louis Rodrigues eds., Springer Press, 2009. edition
In the last decade, a number of approaches were proposed that leverage the beneficial decoupling provided by tuple spaces in a wireless setting, while addressing effectively the limitations of the original Linda model. This chapter looks back at almost a decade of efforts in the research community, by concisely describing some of the most representative systems and analyzing them along some fundamental dimensions of comparison.
In doing so, it considers two main classes of applications that rely on wireless communication. First, we considers mobile networks, where the network topology is continuously redefined by the movement of mobile hosts. Then, we consider the more recent scenario defined by wireless sensor networks (WSNs), networks of tiny, resource-scarce wireless devices equipped with sensors and/or actuators, enabling untethered monitoring and control. After providing a brief survey of representative systems, we elicit some recurring themes and dimensions of comparison and, finally, we present a small case study to show how tuple spaces can be used in the context of a realistic application for the wireless domain at hand.