An ECA-based Mechanism of Non-blocking Device Coordination for a Ubiquitous Environment

Abstract

Recent advances in ubiquitous computing offer a variety of rich services to users using multiple devices. Since multiple devices operate concurrently to provide services to users, it is desirable to coordinate them in an effective manner. In particular, potential conflicts among devices need to be prevented while anticipated services are guaranteed to be delivered to users at the same time. In this paper, we present a novel mechanism to coordinate devices in a ubiquitous environment with formal methodolo gies. It ensures non-blocking service provision in consideration of deadlock- and livelock-free properties. An ECA-based framework is developed and the nonblocking property is proved using finite state automata. An illustrative example is provided and an application system is demonstrated.