Trustworthy Data Sharing and Management for

Collaborative Pervasive Computing Environments 

(September 2004 - August 2008) 

Sponsored by National Science Foundation

Cyber Trust Program

Project Summary

Collaborative pervasive computing applications can greatly improve the investigative capabilities and productivity of scientists and engineers in many fields. Users of such applications usually form groups to collaboratively perform their tasks, supported by their computing devices, including desktop computers, pocket PCs, and/or smart phones, over Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET), LAN and Internet. Users of collaborative pervasive computing applications usually need to share various types of data, including experimental data, sensitive documents, multimedia data, etc. In data sharing and management, a very important issue is trustworthiness. To support trustworthy data sharing and management among groups of users for collaborative pervasive computing applications, secure group communication, trustworthy shared data discovery, flexible access control mechanisms, effective data replication, data quality assurance mechanisms, and intrusion detection mechanisms are needed. So far, little research has been done in trustworthy shared data discovery and flexible access control mechanisms for collaborative pervasive computing environments.

In this project, an innovative approach is being developed to enable trustworthy shared data service management to provide users of collaborative pervasive computing applications with the capabilities of sharing, discovering and accessing shared data with high confidence. Our approach is based on Web Services architecture, emerging OWL technology and our Reconfigurable Context-Sensitive Middleware (RCSM) and Secure Group Communication Service (SGCS). In our approach, shared data services are used to provide access interfaces to shared data. Our trustworthy shared data service management will include trustworthy shared data service specification and generation, shared data service discovery, and secure access to shared data services. Our research will generate a new trustworthy shared data service management technique, including an OWL-based trustworthy shared data service specification language, an automated service generation technique, a trustworthy shared data service discovery protocol and a lightweight situation-aware access control framework. The expected results will be implemented as a set of middleware components and services to support the development of trustworthy data sharing and management capability in collaborative pervasive computing applications.

Welcome!
Last modified: December-20-2008