Safe Operation of ConnectedSpaces
Research Objective and Methodology
Publications (Complete text will soon be available )
Personnel:

Baskar Sridharan

Department of Computer Science, Purdue University

Aditya P. Mathur

Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Research Objective
A ConnectedSpace is a collection of devices, electronic or otherwise, that might interfere with one another. A cell phone coming near an implanted pacemaker, a set of Personal Electronic Devices (PEDs) aboard an airplane, a pulse monitor, TV, and an audio alarm, a heater and an airconditioner enclosed in the same physical boundary, are all examples of ConnectedSpaces. A SmartHome is a ConnectedSpace inside a home. A ConnectedSpace may be open, i.e without any definite physical boundary such as in a public soccar field. It could also be closed with a definite physical boundary such inside a home or aboard an aircraft. A ConnectedSpace forms, changes, and might vanish, over time. For example, during boarding, a closed ConnectedSpace is formed inside an aircraft. It changes as passengers enter the aircraft and turn their PED's on or off. It vanishes when all passengers have deplaned and the aircraft is a rest-condition in its hanger.

There have been several reports of death and near fatal accidents due to the interference caused by devices. The interference could be due to a multitude of causes that include electromagnetic radiation, chemical reaction, and audio alarm suppression.

The long term objective of this research is to obtain and apply a widely applicable solution to the problem of safety in ConnectedSpaces.

Methodology
  1. We have developed a general purpose monitoring and control system called HomeWabash that allows constant monitoring and control of a multitude of devices over the Internet. HomeWabash allows users at home, in a company, or while traveling, to access one or more authorized ConnectedSpaces. They could then monitor the status of the devices within the space and also control these devices. For example, a doctor could check the pulse rate of his patient by directly accessing the pulse monitor installed on the patient. If necessary the doctor could control an automatic medicine release mechanism that injects the necessary drug into the patient.
  2. Safety inside a ConnectedSpace is ensured by enforcing a set of safety policies. The policies are set by the owner of the ConnectedSpace in question. The policies reside in a Policy Server that is contacted by each device that enters the ConnectedSpace. Each device is assumed to possess a controller that ensures that the device obeys the safety policies in force. This basic model has many variations and can be applied to guarantee safety of any ConnectedSpace.
Issues
  1. Standards: Each device that enters a ConnectedSpace must contain a controller that can move the device to a safe state when desired. The controller knows how the device functions through a Digital Device Manual. Such controllers do not exist in most commercially produced electronic devices. A standard needs to be developed that when enforced will lead to the development of device that are controllable by a master Controller within a ConnectedSpace or by their own controllers based on active safety policies.
  2. Privacy and Ethics: Safe operation of a ConncetedSpace will likely take away the freedom to use certain personal devices, albeit temporarily and within a region. For example, a cell phone cannot be used aboard a commercial aircraft during landing or takeoff. Such automatic control, designed to comply with government mandated standards, will likely raise privacy and ethical concerns.
  3. Performance and Reliability: How quickly do devices react to a change in safty policy and when they enter a ConnectedSpace? How reliable is the implementation of the Policy Server and the various controllers? What happens when one or kore controllers or policy severs fail?
  4. Architecture: Monitoring and control can be performed in a variety of ways. Centralized control, distributed control, and embedded control are the three architectures that we investigate.
Publications: Monitoring and Control:
  1. Baskar Sridharan. An Extensible Framework for Monitoring and Controlling CORBA Based Distributed Systems First ICSE Workshop on Testing Distributed Component-Based Systems, Los Angeles, CA, USA, May 1999 , MD, November 12-15, 2002.
  2. Aditya P. Mathur, Ramkumar Natarajan and Baskar Sridharan. Infrastructure for the Management of SmartHomes, White Paper, 2001.
  3. B.Sridharan, B.Dasarathy and D.W 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Networked Appliances,
    New Brunswick, NJ, USA, December 2000. .
  4. R.Natarajan, P.McKee and A.P.Mathur. A XML Based Policy-Driven Information Service, 7th IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management, Seattle, WA, USA, May 2001.
  5. B.Sridharan, B.Dasarathy and A.P.Mathur. On Building Non-intrusive Performance Instrumentation Blocks for CORBA-based Distributed Systems , 4th IEEE International Computer Performance and Dependability Symposium,
    Chicago, IL, USA, March 2000
  6. B.Sridharan, S.Mundkur and A.P.Mathur. Non-intrusive Testing, Monitoring and Control of Distributed CORBA Objects , TOOLS Europe 2000, St. Malo, France,June 2000
  7. A.P.Mathur, S.Ghosh, P.Govindarajan and B.Sridharan. A Framework for Assessing Test Adequacy, Architecture Extraction, Metering, Monitoring and Controlling Distributed Component-Based Systems, Proceedings of 13th International Conference, Software & Systems Engineering and their Applications (ICSSEA~2000), December 5-8, 2000, Vol. 2 (no absolute page numbers available), Paris.
Publications: Safety
  1. Baskar Sridharan, Aditya Mathur, and Kai-Yuan Cai. Synthesizing Distributed Controllers for the Safe Operation of ConnectedSpaces. Submitted.
  2. Baskar Sridharan, Aditya Mathur, and Kai-Yuan Cai. Synthesis of a Safety Controller for ConnectedSpaces Using Supervisory Control. Submitted.
  3. B.Sridharan and A. P. Mathur. Aircraft Safety in the Presence of Mobile Devices. Submitted. [Paper not available to public at this time.]
Last update: October 25, 2002