FABRIC:
Federated Applications Based on Real-time Interacting Components
(IST project IST-2001-37167)
The FABRIC project is a 5th framework IST project to research the Ambient Intelligence promise in the home by concentrating
on a computing- and network- infrastructure. FABRIC aims at developing an
architecture in which several standards and technologies in the home networking
context can be integrated. More than integration alone, FABRIC allows the
management of the complete network to satisfy timing requirements. Network
requirements are provided by the needs of dynamic roaming multi-media streaming
applications. During this project, The High Level Architecture (HLA) of the US
Department of Defense (DoD), also known as the IEEE 1516 standard, is taken as
starting point for the FABRIC. HLA is chosen for its provision of loose but
timed coupling between complex systems.
The project started in September 2002.
Project objectives
1) The interoperability of devices and services coming from
different standards by providing a generic middleware layer.
2) The management of co-operating components, with specific
emphasis on real-time issues coming from the wish to synchronise A/V streams
and satisfy real-time constraints to obtain a realistic viewing experience,
while providing a Quality of Service tailored to the application.
3) Provision of a middleware layer that is distributed, has a
small overhead in terms of memory footprint and energy, and provides good throughput
and small latency. In addition, the resource requirements should be low enough
for deployment in embedded systems.
Partners
The FABRIC research is done by a
combination of nine partners from industry, research and educational
institutes. In particular:
·
Philips and Thomson
are from industry.
·
TNO,
CSEM and INRIA
are research institutes.
·
TU/e,
UCL, MDH
and SSSA are educational institutes.
Description of the work
Roaming applications: The characteristics of the applications are worked out,
both in the healthcare as in the home environment. Roaming of the devices is
essential and leads to different routes through the network. The redirection of
the streams is calculated by the network management part on the basis of the
mathematical analysis of the streams and the scheduling possibilities of the
network and the processors. Algorithms for network management are produced.
Interoperability: The interoperability between devices of different
standards is realised. The mapping of the functionalities between the standards
is studied. A successful mapping supports the starting, stopping and management
of A/V streams between devices, possibly controlled by other devices,
independent of the standard they belong to.
Streaming performance: A mathematical analysis of the streams is
provided to support the network management in its decisions. Also scheduling
directions and schedulability analysis for streams over the network are
developed here. The timing model is worked out in detail. The results provide
the technology to realise and verify the decisions taken by the management
algorithms. The realisation of the streaming over the different media, and the
consequences of bridges between the media for the streaming performance are
studied.
HLA integration: Recommendations for HLA and the best configuration
options of HLA for the FABRIC architecture are provided. HLA design and
implementation choices are compared (e.g. using CORBA). An analysis of the
chosen FABRIC architecture is provided. The components of the architecture are
integrated into the HLA. Recommendations to IEEE and IETF are
Current work
Our group is mainly active with the issues related to the roaming aspects
of the architecture. In the first phase
of the project, a requirement and technology analyses was performed. Currently, we are working on the application
and architecture design.
People
From SAN, Johan
Lukkien and Richard Verhoeven are participating in the FABRIC project.
More information
More
information on the FABRIC project is available at the public FABRIC home
page.