Julie McCann - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Julie McCann
Cities are places where people, meet, exchange, work, live and interact. They bring people with d... more Cities are places where people, meet, exchange, work, live and interact. They bring people with different interests, experiences and knowledge close together. They are the centres of culture, economic development and social change. They offer many opportunities to innovate with technologies, from the infrastructures that underlie the sewers to computing in the cloud. One of the overarching goals of Intel's Collabo-rative Research Institute on Sustainable Connected Cities is to integrate the technological, economic and social needs of cities in ways that are sustainable and human-centred. Our objective is to inform, develop and evaluate services that enhance the quality of living in the city.
Proceedings of the 1st ACM International Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems for Smart Water Networks - CySWater'15, 2015
2010 Seventh IEEE International Conference and Workshops on Engineering of Autonomic and Autonomous Systems, 2010
ABSTRACT The service oriented computing paradigm can be described as consisting of the following ... more ABSTRACT The service oriented computing paradigm can be described as consisting of the following major components: service providers, service consumers and one or more service trader. One of the most challenging problems in this field has surrounded the choice of service provider in the presence of several, that best matches the consumer requirements. There has been a body of work exploring quality measures as a means of discerning between services. However, in much of the previous work the service selection remains relatively static during the life-time of the session, yet finer-granularity is required by Pervasive applications to drive their self-configuration, repair and management. Therefore how subtle changes in service quality affect the service choice, and ultimately the system's optimal performance in terms of its goals, is less well understood. In this paper, we propose a utility-function driven framework that dynamically chooses the most suitable providers for each consumer; driving self-optimization. We evaluate the performance and accuracy of our solution by implementing a pervasive home video application. Our results show our framework imposes minimal overheads while offering good response time and an accurate choices to the provider. Further, we observe that under less stable conditions, the framework state-flaps quite severely, producing oscillations between consumer-service bindings; increasing overheads. To this end, we have established several mechanisms that minimize the number of oscillations under unstable conditions and have evaluated each in terms of their ability to maintain stability under differing degrees of volatility.
2009 Fifth International Conference on Wireless Communication and Sensor Networks (WCSN), 2009
As Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) become more technically mature, we are observing more deploymen... more As Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) become more technically mature, we are observing more deployment that is widespread. Disaster Monitoring and Recovery is one area receiving recent attention in the field. Here, due to hostile terrains or dangerous settings, standard manual or wired detections are not feasible. In situ WSN have the potential to analyze conditions and make predictions regarding dangerous situations potentially saving lives. However, this situation brings many challenges for the WSN in terms of event detection and the subsequent relaying of that event notification to the devices/systems/people that require it. The latter is the focus of this paper. Given the general unreliability of WSNs, there is a demand for Quality of Service driven mechanisms that can ensure that event data is delivered reliably and timely as required by the application. To this end, we present a novel Priority-Based Random Re-routing protocol (PB-RRR). We evaluate our protocol using both an analytical model and a 34-node proof-of-concept sensor deployment. We introduce five QoS levels that progressively improve high priority message throughput from best-effort to reliable event message delivery. We evaluate how congestion, proportions of priority event nodes/messages, and decision threshold affects message delay for each QoS level.
This paper describes a protocol for dynamically configuring wireless sensor nodes into logical cl... more This paper describes a protocol for dynamically configuring wireless sensor nodes into logical clusters. The concept is to be able to inject an overlay configuration into an ad-hoc network of sensor nodes or similar devices, and have the network configure itself organically. The devices are arbitrarily deployed and have initially have no information whatsoever concerning physical location, topology, density or neighbourhood. The Emergent Cluster Overlay (ECO) protocol is totally self-configuring and has several novel features, including nodes self-determining their mobility based on patterns of neighbour discovery, and that the target cluster size is specified externally (by the sensor network application) and is not directly coupled to radio communication range or node packing density. Cluster head nodes are automatically assigned as part of the cluster configuration process, at no additional cost. ECO is ideally suited to applications of wireless sensor networks in which localized groups of sensors act cooperatively to provide a service. This includes situations where service dilution is used (dynamically identifying redundant nodes to conserve their resources).
Proceedings. 15th International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications, 2004., 2004
In this paper, we propose a framework for building a self-adaptive Content Distribution Network (... more In this paper, we propose a framework for building a self-adaptive Content Distribution Network (CDN). Such a CDN will exhibit self- adaptive behaviour at a coarse grained granularity. It will be able to cope with serving heterogeneous resources under unpredictable conditions. We describe the concepts that underpin our framework and we discuss the issues that it raises.
Proceedings of the 1st ACM international workshop on Data engineering for wireless and mobile access - MobiDe '99, 1999
Computer systems no longer operate in centralized isolated static environments. Technological adv... more Computer systems no longer operate in centralized isolated static environments. Technological advances, such as smaller and faster hardware, snd higher reliability of networks have resulted in the growth of mobility of computing and the need for run-time adaptability and reconfigurability. However, mobile and roaming users need to dynamically adapt to local system configurations to order to fully utilize resources currently available, such as a fast network connection, an available colour printer etc. In order to provide support for this type of application, a dynamic resource manager supporting indirect resource requests and runtime reconfigurability is essential.
monitoring of information placed in the pool, and dynamic adaptation to changes detected in the e... more monitoring of information placed in the pool, and dynamic adaptation to changes detected in the environment.
14th International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications, 2003. Proceedings., 2003
This paper introduces the Patia Autonomic webserver, which has been designed to be self-monitorin... more This paper introduces the Patia Autonomic webserver, which has been designed to be self-monitoring and adaptive to not only improve webserver performance but robustness in terms of helping with flash crowd situations. This paper describes the Patia architecture, highlighting how a traditional computing system can be redesigned to become reflective and adaptive. In doing so we examine and report initial
The Sixth International Symposium on Autonomous Decentralized Systems, 2003. ISADS 2003., 2003
This paper introduces the Patia adaptive Web server architecture, which is distributed and consis... more This paper introduces the Patia adaptive Web server architecture, which is distributed and consists of semi-autonomous agents called flys. The fly carries with it the set of rules and adaptivity policies required to deliver the data to the requesting client. Where a change in the fly's external environment could affect performance, it is the fly's responsibility to change the method of delivery (or the actual object being delivered). It is our conjecture that the success of today's multimedia Web sites in terms of dependability and performance lies in the architecture of the underlying servers and their ability to adapt to changes in demand, resource availability, as well as their ability to scale. We believe that the distributed and autonomous nature of this system is the key factor in achieving this.
Journal of Fusion Energy, 1994
Electric utilities are keenly interested in the promise of fusion: large-scale electricity produc... more Electric utilities are keenly interested in the promise of fusion: large-scale electricity production anywhere, with virtually no natural resource depletion or environmental pollution. To expedite development of commercially viable fusion systems, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRl)---the R&D wing of the U.S. electric utility industry--recently convened a panel of top utility R&D managers and executive officers to identify the key criteria that must be met by fusion plants in order to be acceptable to utilities. The panel's findings, summarized in this report, emphasize competitive economics, positive public perception, and regulatory simplicity.
1. ABSTRACT Next generation computing architectures will consist of a combination of heterogeneou... more 1. ABSTRACT Next generation computing architectures will consist of a combination of heterogeneous hardware and software platforms, automatically and transparently interoperating. this interconnectivity can be achieved through middleware. Middleware systems, the adhesive binding components in distributed environments, are rapidly evolving into more flexible, robust and usable systems. Nevertheless, tools to help manage these systems are lagging behind. Large heterogeneous intercommunicating
Theory and Practice of Object Systems, 1999
Vendors of Object Database Management Systems (ODBMSs) have used a number of different architectu... more Vendors of Object Database Management Systems (ODBMSs) have used a number of different architectural approaches for their products. Generally, most previously published ODBMS performance work focused on engineering applications and very little is known about the suitability of ODBMS implementations for other application domains. In this paper, we redress this imbalance and evaluate three commercial products (two pure ODBMSs and one hybrid Object-Relational DBMS) to determine the suitability of each for six different application domains. Our results show statistically significant performance differences between the products under test. Furthermore, the hybrid product consistently performed badly on most of our tests. We also found that testing the scalability of products in terms of database size, as well as the choice of language interface, can be very important. Furthermore, the use of a dedicated database load utility can save considerable time when loading simple data, but generating complex data for the load utility requires considerable manual intervention.
1Abstract, This paper introduces the Patia Adaptive Webserver architecture, which is distributed ... more 1Abstract, This paper introduces the Patia Adaptive Webserver architecture, which is distributed and consists of semi-autonomous agents called FLYs. The FLY carries with it the set of rules and adaptivity policies required to deliver the data to the requesting client. Where a change in the FLY’s external environment could affect performance, it is the FLY’s responsibility to change the method,of delivery (or the actual object being delivered). It is our conjecture that the success of today’s multimedia websites in terms of performance lies in the architecture of the underlying servers and their ability to adapt to changes in demand and resource availability, as well as their ability to scale. We believe that the distributed and autonomous,nature of this system are key factors in achieving this.
Irish Journal of Medical Science, 2002
Conclusion These figures indicate a significant workload and commitment on the part of both surg... more Conclusion These figures indicate a significant workload and commitment on the part of both surgeon and patient. Favourable outcome assessments (both subjective and objective) suggest that tissue expansion, though labour intensive, is worth the effort.
Irish Journal of Medical Science, 2002
Conclusion Adding frozen rather than refrigerated milk would significantly limit the time period... more Conclusion Adding frozen rather than refrigerated milk would significantly limit the time period drinks about the home remain dangerously hot and increase the time available to remove clothing and apply cold water when spills occur, thus preventing serious scald injuries.
This paper describes work being carried out in the area of parallel program hot spot analysis wit... more This paper describes work being carried out in the area of parallel program hot spot analysis within the FortPort project. Fortport aims to provid,e a complete environment for the automatic migration of sequential Fortran codes to multiprocessor environments. An important part of the overall Fortport approach is to monitor the execution of parallel codes produced by the system on the target machine and then to “refme” the parallelization of the program based on analysis of results gathered during the monitoring. This paper reports on how the execution monitoring component of the system has been implemented and how it can be used by application programmers to tune concurrent programs to execule efficiently on parallel architectures.
Current database management system technology is unable to provide adequate support for Nomadic C... more Current database management system technology is unable to provide adequate support for Nomadic Computing. Mobile applications require systems which are sufficiently lightweight and customisable to provide high performance while consuming minimal power, yet extensible enough to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Current DBMS architectures do not provide this level of customization or adaptability. In this paper we introduce Component-Based Database Management Systems (CBDMS) and discuss their suitability for mobile computing.
Cities are places where people, meet, exchange, work, live and interact. They bring people with d... more Cities are places where people, meet, exchange, work, live and interact. They bring people with different interests, experiences and knowledge close together. They are the centres of culture, economic development and social change. They offer many opportunities to innovate with technologies, from the infrastructures that underlie the sewers to computing in the cloud. One of the overarching goals of Intel's Collabo-rative Research Institute on Sustainable Connected Cities is to integrate the technological, economic and social needs of cities in ways that are sustainable and human-centred. Our objective is to inform, develop and evaluate services that enhance the quality of living in the city.
Proceedings of the 1st ACM International Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems for Smart Water Networks - CySWater'15, 2015
2010 Seventh IEEE International Conference and Workshops on Engineering of Autonomic and Autonomous Systems, 2010
ABSTRACT The service oriented computing paradigm can be described as consisting of the following ... more ABSTRACT The service oriented computing paradigm can be described as consisting of the following major components: service providers, service consumers and one or more service trader. One of the most challenging problems in this field has surrounded the choice of service provider in the presence of several, that best matches the consumer requirements. There has been a body of work exploring quality measures as a means of discerning between services. However, in much of the previous work the service selection remains relatively static during the life-time of the session, yet finer-granularity is required by Pervasive applications to drive their self-configuration, repair and management. Therefore how subtle changes in service quality affect the service choice, and ultimately the system's optimal performance in terms of its goals, is less well understood. In this paper, we propose a utility-function driven framework that dynamically chooses the most suitable providers for each consumer; driving self-optimization. We evaluate the performance and accuracy of our solution by implementing a pervasive home video application. Our results show our framework imposes minimal overheads while offering good response time and an accurate choices to the provider. Further, we observe that under less stable conditions, the framework state-flaps quite severely, producing oscillations between consumer-service bindings; increasing overheads. To this end, we have established several mechanisms that minimize the number of oscillations under unstable conditions and have evaluated each in terms of their ability to maintain stability under differing degrees of volatility.
2009 Fifth International Conference on Wireless Communication and Sensor Networks (WCSN), 2009
As Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) become more technically mature, we are observing more deploymen... more As Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) become more technically mature, we are observing more deployment that is widespread. Disaster Monitoring and Recovery is one area receiving recent attention in the field. Here, due to hostile terrains or dangerous settings, standard manual or wired detections are not feasible. In situ WSN have the potential to analyze conditions and make predictions regarding dangerous situations potentially saving lives. However, this situation brings many challenges for the WSN in terms of event detection and the subsequent relaying of that event notification to the devices/systems/people that require it. The latter is the focus of this paper. Given the general unreliability of WSNs, there is a demand for Quality of Service driven mechanisms that can ensure that event data is delivered reliably and timely as required by the application. To this end, we present a novel Priority-Based Random Re-routing protocol (PB-RRR). We evaluate our protocol using both an analytical model and a 34-node proof-of-concept sensor deployment. We introduce five QoS levels that progressively improve high priority message throughput from best-effort to reliable event message delivery. We evaluate how congestion, proportions of priority event nodes/messages, and decision threshold affects message delay for each QoS level.
This paper describes a protocol for dynamically configuring wireless sensor nodes into logical cl... more This paper describes a protocol for dynamically configuring wireless sensor nodes into logical clusters. The concept is to be able to inject an overlay configuration into an ad-hoc network of sensor nodes or similar devices, and have the network configure itself organically. The devices are arbitrarily deployed and have initially have no information whatsoever concerning physical location, topology, density or neighbourhood. The Emergent Cluster Overlay (ECO) protocol is totally self-configuring and has several novel features, including nodes self-determining their mobility based on patterns of neighbour discovery, and that the target cluster size is specified externally (by the sensor network application) and is not directly coupled to radio communication range or node packing density. Cluster head nodes are automatically assigned as part of the cluster configuration process, at no additional cost. ECO is ideally suited to applications of wireless sensor networks in which localized groups of sensors act cooperatively to provide a service. This includes situations where service dilution is used (dynamically identifying redundant nodes to conserve their resources).
Proceedings. 15th International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications, 2004., 2004
In this paper, we propose a framework for building a self-adaptive Content Distribution Network (... more In this paper, we propose a framework for building a self-adaptive Content Distribution Network (CDN). Such a CDN will exhibit self- adaptive behaviour at a coarse grained granularity. It will be able to cope with serving heterogeneous resources under unpredictable conditions. We describe the concepts that underpin our framework and we discuss the issues that it raises.
Proceedings of the 1st ACM international workshop on Data engineering for wireless and mobile access - MobiDe '99, 1999
Computer systems no longer operate in centralized isolated static environments. Technological adv... more Computer systems no longer operate in centralized isolated static environments. Technological advances, such as smaller and faster hardware, snd higher reliability of networks have resulted in the growth of mobility of computing and the need for run-time adaptability and reconfigurability. However, mobile and roaming users need to dynamically adapt to local system configurations to order to fully utilize resources currently available, such as a fast network connection, an available colour printer etc. In order to provide support for this type of application, a dynamic resource manager supporting indirect resource requests and runtime reconfigurability is essential.
monitoring of information placed in the pool, and dynamic adaptation to changes detected in the e... more monitoring of information placed in the pool, and dynamic adaptation to changes detected in the environment.
14th International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications, 2003. Proceedings., 2003
This paper introduces the Patia Autonomic webserver, which has been designed to be self-monitorin... more This paper introduces the Patia Autonomic webserver, which has been designed to be self-monitoring and adaptive to not only improve webserver performance but robustness in terms of helping with flash crowd situations. This paper describes the Patia architecture, highlighting how a traditional computing system can be redesigned to become reflective and adaptive. In doing so we examine and report initial
The Sixth International Symposium on Autonomous Decentralized Systems, 2003. ISADS 2003., 2003
This paper introduces the Patia adaptive Web server architecture, which is distributed and consis... more This paper introduces the Patia adaptive Web server architecture, which is distributed and consists of semi-autonomous agents called flys. The fly carries with it the set of rules and adaptivity policies required to deliver the data to the requesting client. Where a change in the fly's external environment could affect performance, it is the fly's responsibility to change the method of delivery (or the actual object being delivered). It is our conjecture that the success of today's multimedia Web sites in terms of dependability and performance lies in the architecture of the underlying servers and their ability to adapt to changes in demand, resource availability, as well as their ability to scale. We believe that the distributed and autonomous nature of this system is the key factor in achieving this.
Journal of Fusion Energy, 1994
Electric utilities are keenly interested in the promise of fusion: large-scale electricity produc... more Electric utilities are keenly interested in the promise of fusion: large-scale electricity production anywhere, with virtually no natural resource depletion or environmental pollution. To expedite development of commercially viable fusion systems, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRl)---the R&D wing of the U.S. electric utility industry--recently convened a panel of top utility R&D managers and executive officers to identify the key criteria that must be met by fusion plants in order to be acceptable to utilities. The panel's findings, summarized in this report, emphasize competitive economics, positive public perception, and regulatory simplicity.
1. ABSTRACT Next generation computing architectures will consist of a combination of heterogeneou... more 1. ABSTRACT Next generation computing architectures will consist of a combination of heterogeneous hardware and software platforms, automatically and transparently interoperating. this interconnectivity can be achieved through middleware. Middleware systems, the adhesive binding components in distributed environments, are rapidly evolving into more flexible, robust and usable systems. Nevertheless, tools to help manage these systems are lagging behind. Large heterogeneous intercommunicating
Theory and Practice of Object Systems, 1999
Vendors of Object Database Management Systems (ODBMSs) have used a number of different architectu... more Vendors of Object Database Management Systems (ODBMSs) have used a number of different architectural approaches for their products. Generally, most previously published ODBMS performance work focused on engineering applications and very little is known about the suitability of ODBMS implementations for other application domains. In this paper, we redress this imbalance and evaluate three commercial products (two pure ODBMSs and one hybrid Object-Relational DBMS) to determine the suitability of each for six different application domains. Our results show statistically significant performance differences between the products under test. Furthermore, the hybrid product consistently performed badly on most of our tests. We also found that testing the scalability of products in terms of database size, as well as the choice of language interface, can be very important. Furthermore, the use of a dedicated database load utility can save considerable time when loading simple data, but generating complex data for the load utility requires considerable manual intervention.
1Abstract, This paper introduces the Patia Adaptive Webserver architecture, which is distributed ... more 1Abstract, This paper introduces the Patia Adaptive Webserver architecture, which is distributed and consists of semi-autonomous agents called FLYs. The FLY carries with it the set of rules and adaptivity policies required to deliver the data to the requesting client. Where a change in the FLY’s external environment could affect performance, it is the FLY’s responsibility to change the method,of delivery (or the actual object being delivered). It is our conjecture that the success of today’s multimedia websites in terms of performance lies in the architecture of the underlying servers and their ability to adapt to changes in demand and resource availability, as well as their ability to scale. We believe that the distributed and autonomous,nature of this system are key factors in achieving this.
Irish Journal of Medical Science, 2002
Conclusion These figures indicate a significant workload and commitment on the part of both surg... more Conclusion These figures indicate a significant workload and commitment on the part of both surgeon and patient. Favourable outcome assessments (both subjective and objective) suggest that tissue expansion, though labour intensive, is worth the effort.
Irish Journal of Medical Science, 2002
Conclusion Adding frozen rather than refrigerated milk would significantly limit the time period... more Conclusion Adding frozen rather than refrigerated milk would significantly limit the time period drinks about the home remain dangerously hot and increase the time available to remove clothing and apply cold water when spills occur, thus preventing serious scald injuries.
This paper describes work being carried out in the area of parallel program hot spot analysis wit... more This paper describes work being carried out in the area of parallel program hot spot analysis within the FortPort project. Fortport aims to provid,e a complete environment for the automatic migration of sequential Fortran codes to multiprocessor environments. An important part of the overall Fortport approach is to monitor the execution of parallel codes produced by the system on the target machine and then to “refme” the parallelization of the program based on analysis of results gathered during the monitoring. This paper reports on how the execution monitoring component of the system has been implemented and how it can be used by application programmers to tune concurrent programs to execule efficiently on parallel architectures.
Current database management system technology is unable to provide adequate support for Nomadic C... more Current database management system technology is unable to provide adequate support for Nomadic Computing. Mobile applications require systems which are sufficiently lightweight and customisable to provide high performance while consuming minimal power, yet extensible enough to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Current DBMS architectures do not provide this level of customization or adaptability. In this paper we introduce Component-Based Database Management Systems (CBDMS) and discuss their suitability for mobile computing.