Homework one

CS595 Pervasive Computing and Web Service

Due March 9, 2004

 

  1. Please give a short and precise answer to the following questions

 

1.1What is distributed computing?

1.2  What is mobile computing?

1.3  What is pervasive computing?

1.4  What is the difference between distributed computing and Grid computing?

1.5  What is middleware?

1.6  What is the difference between adaptive computing and context-ware computing?

 

  1. XML is a new data representation format.  It uses HTML-like tags to impose structure on arbitrary data.  It is used heavily in Internet protocols for web services like SOAP.  If you have not encountered it before, do some basic research to understand XML and answer the following questions:

        a. List the advantages and disadvantages of using XML in protocols.
        b. For each disadvantage you list, specify possible remedies to alleviate that disadvantage.

  2. Read the following three references:

·        David Isenberg, "The Rise of the Stupid Network", Computer Telephony, Aug 1997, pp 16-26. You can get it at http://isen.com/stupid.html

·        David Isenberg, "The Dawn of the stupid network", ACM Networke Feb/Mar 1998, pp 24-31. You can get it at http://www.isen.com/papers/Dawnstupid.html

·        David Isenberg and David Weinberger, "The paradox of the best network", unpublished. You can get it at http://www.netparadox.com/

 

The Internet is characterized as a "stupid" network; the core is basically simple while the intelligence resides at the edges. The telephone network is just the opposite, with the intelligence residing in the core and the endpoints being simple.  After reading the above three references, provide a short essay on if you agree with this premise or not.  Support your viewpoint by logical assertions drawn from existing literature (reference 3 above has links to many related papers).