Recent Results

D21.2 RATP trial applications, intermediate version — by Jacqueline Floch — last modified 2010-02-15 11:36

The MUSIC project aims at developing a comprehensive open-source software development framework that facilitates the development of self-adapting, reconfigurable software that seamlessly adapts to the highly dynamic user and execution context, and maintains a high level usefulness across context changes. In that context, the main purpose of the RATP trial is to assess the MUSIC development framework. In addition, the trial is a means to demonstrate and promote the MUSIC technology outside the project. The RATP trial will consist of a set of MUSIC demonstrators that relate to the metro traveller’s and employee’s needs and could be demonstrated using the RATP infrastructure. This deliverable provides specifications of the initial versions of the RATP trial applications, as developed in cycles 1 and 2 of the project. The applications will be extended in cycles 3 and 4, and the final versions of the applications will be described in the deliverable D21.3. The deliverable consists of four parts: Part A describes the Travel Assistant application that provides support to the RATP metro traveller for planning itineraries, ticket purchase, navigation and tourist information. Part B describes the PRM application that provides special assistance to RATP travellers with reduced mobility (e.g. sight and walking difficulties). Part C describes the IROP applications that provide medical treatment and communication support in an irregular operation situation. Part D describes the context plug-ins and services common to these applications. URL D21.2 RATP trial applications, intermediate version

D13.12 Telecom Italia’s MUSIC Exploitation:Mobile eTourism — by Nicoletta Salis — last modified 2010-02-11 15:30

MUSIC is a focused initiative with the goal of designing, developing and distributing an open-source software development framework, which enables developers to create context-aware mobile applications that dynamically and seamlessly adapt to changes in the user and execution context. As Telecom Italia (TI) is currently investigating and experiencing new services to support mobile users in their tourist activities, it sees mobile eTourism as the most proper opportunity to exploit the MUSIC results, by developing new eTourism services, benefiting from the adaptation and context-awareness functionalities already offered by the platform. In the context of mobile eTourism services application area and by analyzing the positioning of the possible competitors (both Telco and IT big players), this document reports TI’s choices and opportunities in its will to trial and bring to market new contextualized, self-adapted and Web2.0 services for tourists. By leveraging on innovative technologies promoting ICT convergence, TI would like to build a new offer for the tourism sector in order to contribute enhancing competitiveness. Support for public administrations and operators participating in the national tourism system (regions, provinces, cities of art, the managers of archaeological, cultural and food & wine paths, the consortia of municipalities and agencies, the Parks, …) is one of the goals that TI supports and for which it can provide technology and advanced models of enjoyment and participation. The first two chapters introduce the tourism sector (all over the world and in Italy), explain how the ICT and the mobile technologies are taking it towards the eTourism and the mobile eTourism and which opportunities have been seen by TI in this arena; chapter 4 explains more in detail how the direct (and not direct) TI’s competitors are moving in this area. In chapters 3 and 5 TI’s MUSIC exploitation and the benefits coming from the MUSIC project are well described together with different field trials performed in 2008-2009, by using some parts of the MUSIC middleware inserted in a more general TI’s eTourism platform. In the end, Chapter 6 reports the SWOT analysis of MUSIC in the eTourism services area. Keywords: eTourism, Mobile eTourism, MUSIC Exploitation Project Website: http://www.ist-music.eu

D2.4 Final Research Results on methods, languages, algorithms, and tools to modeling and management of context — by Massimo Valla — last modified 2010-02-11 15:30

This MUSIC deliverable collects the results of research activities done in the area of context-awareness in Work package 2 in the third year of the project. Similarly to previous deliverables from Work package 2, this document has been organized as a collection of scientific papers. Since the basic technologies on which the MUSIC context middleware is architected have already been addressed in previous research cycles, the research reported in this deliverable has primarily focused on collecting experience and feedback obtained while implementing the MUSIC context middleware, plug-ins, tools and trial applications, and proposing improvements based on this feedback. However, some chapters also present new results in the area of the MUSIC context middleware, not yet touched in previous research cycles, and required by the feature-based planning of activities in the project. Keywords: MUSIC, Context, Context-awareness, State-of-the-Art, Requirements, Adaptive systems, Middleware, Modeling, Semantics, Context Reasoning, Context Learning, Model-driven development, Profiles

D23.2 SatCom installation trial initial implementation and evaluation — by Pedro Antonio Ruiz Gonzalez — last modified 2010-02-09 16:51

The MUSIC project aims at developing a comprehensive open-source software development framework that facilitates the development of self-adapting, reconfigurable software that seamlessly adapts to the highly dynamic user and execution contexts, and maintains a high level usefulness across context changes We aim for an adaptation model that clearly separates the adaptation mechanisms and policies from the application logic. This will enable the provision of adaptive behaviour as generic and reusable services, thus relieving the application programmer from much of the complex task of programming adaptation management and mechanisms. The main objective of this deliverable is to report the initial implementation of SatCom application, which is used to assess the MUSIC development framework and is also a means to demonstrate and promote the MUSIC technology outside the project. Furthermore, this implementation on top of the MUSIC middleware allows deriving a set of properties and information that are used to evaluate the MUSIC platform, which is reported through WP20. The SatCom application provides an integrated tool that eases the installation process of bidirectional satellite antennas. For this purpose, the application offers three main blocks of functionalities: PlaInstallation: This block manages and coordinates the workforce, provides installer with dynamic routes and launches other applications in different context situation. Adaptive SatMotion: This block is used in the alignment process of bidirectional satellites antennas, and provides the best operation mode and optimizes the resources usage according to the different context situations. Adap2Nav: This block guides the installer through their way to installation sites, and provides optimal user interfaces and automation mechanisms to offer the user optimal usability in adverse conditions. The document details the functioning of SatCom, explains how MUSIC methodologu can improve its functioning and finally provide the design and report the implementation of SatCom in MUSIC.

D20.3 Evaluation Framework Specification (Final) — by Pedro Antonio Ruiz Gonzalez — last modified 2010-02-09 16:43

The objective of this document is to specify an evaluation framework which will be used by the trial applications to assess the solution provided by the MUSIC platform. This document refines the initial evaluation framework presented in deliverable D20.1, based on the experience of using the initial framework, and includes the features that were not considered in the initial version. We define the evaluation framework from two perspectives: On the one hand, we specify a framework to evaluate MUSIC platform as a development environment to add adaptability to applications, i.e., we consider the evaluation from the developer point of view. For this we analyze the features that should be offered the MUSIC modelling notations, methodologies and tools. The analysis includes usability, coverage of the adaptation domain problem and automation aspects. On the other hand, we specify a framework for the evaluation of the MUSIC platform from the end user perspective. For this framework, we consider aspects of the platform at runtime in such a way we can estimate the end user satisfaction. The framework includes the determination of validation criteria and key quality indicators for measuring the achieved quality of the middleware with respect to a set of adaptation requirements. The criteria are quantifiable and comparable in order to ensure comparable results between different increments of the middleware. The evaluation framework aims at guiding the assessment of the MUSIC platform by trial developers with different needs and various experiences. Therefore we provide a flexible framework that can be customized to the specific characteristics of the targeted applications and to the developer profiles.

D20.1 Intermediate Evaluation Framework — by Pedro Antonio Ruiz Gonzalez — last modified 2010-02-09 16:26

The objective of this document is to specify an evaluation framework which will be used by the trial applications to assess the solution provided by the MUSIC platform. We define the evaluation framework from two perspectives. On the one hand, we specify a framework to evaluate MUSIC platform as a development environment to add adaptability to application, i.e., the evaluation from the developer point of view. For this we analyze the features that should offer the proposed tools and design language extensions in terms of usability, coverage of the adaptation domain problem and automation aspects. Both the modelling methodologies and the development framework will be validated as assisted environments for creating adaptive applications. On the other hand, we also specify a framework for the evaluation of MUSIC platform from the end user perspective. For this framework, we consider aspects of the platform in run time in such a way we can estimate the end user satisfaction. Furthermore, this framework includes the determination of the validation criteria and key quality indicators for measuring the achieved quality of the developed middleware in relation to its adaptation requirements. The defined criteria will be quantifiable and comparable to insure comparable results between different increments of the middleware. Both evaluation frameworks will guide the assessment of the MUSIC platform by the trials developers, so that we provide the needed flexibility to be customized to the specific characteristics of the targeted applications and developer profiles.

D4.3 System design of the MUSIC architecture — by Paolo Barone — last modified 2010-02-09 16:09

MUSIC is a focused initiative with the goal of designing, developing and distributing an open-source software framework, which enables developers to create context-aware mobile applications that dynamically and seamlessly adapt to changes in the user and execution context. MUSIC aims at defining a methodology to support the design and modelling of self-adaptive applications, and at providing a distributed architecture and middleware and tools to support the efficient execution of these applications in ubiquitous environments. The goal of Work Package 4 “Architecture” is designing the MUSIC architecture. It targets the above mentioned mobile and ubiquitous environments which are highly distributed, dynamic and heterogeneous. The purpose of this document is to define the final design of the MUSIC architecture. It specifies the functionalities of major architectural components and their relationship, and takes into account the final results from Work Packages 1 (“Adaptation”), 2 (“Context”) and the feedback coming from the first software development cycle in WP5 - based on the intermediate version of the MUSIC architecture described in D4.2. The final design focuses on the notions of service-oriented self-adaptations and self-adaptability of the MUSIC architecture, SLA negotiation and distribution of context information. The final design of the MUSIC architecture will be used as input for the Work Packages 5 (“Middleware”) and 7 (“Tools”) to develop the final version of the MUSIC middleware and tools.

D13.11 MUSIC & ANDROID — by Nearchos Paspallis — last modified 2010-02-09 14:54

This white paper investigates the Open Handset Alliance’s (OHA) Android platform and how its underlying technology can benefit the MUSIC technology and vice versa. We provide an evaluation of how the Android platform works, focusing on the functioning that is mostly related to the MUSIC platform. It should be noted that while MUSIC consists of both a development framework (MUSIC Studio) and a middleware (MUSIC Runtime Environment) this paper focuses primarily at the comparison between the Android platform and the MUSIC Runtime Environment. As it is argued in this paper, while the two platforms have significant differences, they can nevertheless help each other either practically (i.e., by porting code) or fundamentally (i.e., by porting ideas). Finally, it is shown that the MUSIC platform can be ported to the Android platform, but this introduces some noteworthy limitations which are also discussed.

D6.4 Modelling notation and software development method for adaptive applications in ubiquitous computing environments — by Michael Wagner — last modified 2010-02-09 14:36

MUSIC is an initiative that develops a comprehensive open-source software development framework facilitating the development of self-adapting, reconfigurable software that seamlessly adapts to the highly dynamic user and execution context, typical of mobile and ubiquitous computing and thus maintains a high level of usefulness across context changes. For this purpose, MUSIC provides a methodology for the model-driven development of self-adapting applications integrating modelling language enhancements for the specification of context dependencies, application variability and adaptation capabilities. This deliverable reflects the work done in WP6 for Tasks 6.1 and 6.2 in the third year of the project. Task 6.1 deals with the definition of a modelling notation to express the adaptation capabilities of an application. The modelling notation is based on the requirements derived from MUSIC work packages 1 and 2 as well as the list of MUSIC Features. Task 6.2 deals with providing a methodology for the model-driven development of selfadapting applications integrating modelling language enhancements for the specification of context dependencies, application variability and adaptation capabilities. The methodology utilizes the modelling notation and shows how tools can be incorporated, in order to ease the development task. Therefore, this deliverable has to be considered as important basis for WP7 work that provides the development tool suite (MUSIC Studio) supporting the methodology. The development methodology not only provides a step-by-step guideline to specify the application’s context dependencies, variability and domain model, but also covers the transformation of models to source code, the deployment of applications on the middleware and the testing and validation of the expected adaptation capabilities. Keywords: Adaptive application, context-awareness, context modelling, methodology, modelling notation, model-driven development, UML Profile, service orientation, ontology, OWL, OWL-S, WSDL.

D13.6 MUSIC vision and solutions — by Svein Hallsteinsen — last modified 2010-02-09 14:22

With the widespread proliferation of mobile and pervasive computing, people increasingly use applications while away from their desktop. This creates a need for applications that works properly also in mobile settings, characterised by dynamic variations in user needs and computing resources. Traditional software development approaches provides little support for tackling such dynamic variation in requirements and resource constraints. MUSIC is a focused initiative aiming to alleviate the development of context-aware mobile applications that dynamically and seamlessly adapt to changes in the user and execution context. This white paper describes the vision of the MUSIC project and the solutions we have developed to fulfil it. Furthermore it provides an outlook on how we envisage the continued development of these solutions. It intends to give software developers a first introduction to the broad spectrum of results that can best be understood collectively as a new software development framework for applications meant to operate in dynamic environments.

D7.2 MUSIC Studio and Tools (initial version) — by Yves Vanrompay — last modified 2010-02-09 14:24

 

D5.4 MUSIC middleware software with documentation (version 2) — by Jorge Lorenzo — last modified 2010-02-09 13:58

This document belongs to the deliverable 5.4: “MUSIC middleware software with documentation (version 2)”which is basically a software deliverable. D5.4 is made up of (a) Java source code, (b) Javadoc documentation, (c) binaries and (d) the current document. The MUSIC project develops an open-source software development framework for the implementation of selfadapting, reconfigurable software that adapts to the dynamic user and execution context. This deliverable is the result of the middleware development during the third year of the project according to the design of the MUSIC architecture provided in D4.3. In this release most of the planned functionality has been implemented, but further improvements and bug fixes are planned during the last half year of the project. The purpose of this document is to continue the documentation of D5.2, paying special attention to the configuration of the MUSIC middleware and how to deploy it in different environments. For a more detailed documentation of the architecture, see D4.3. A set of annexes has been compiled to support middleware developers as well as third parties. These annexes comprise: (a) MUSIC in mobile devices, (b) the communication services, and (c) a guide to set up the development environment. Keywords: Middleware, OSGi, bundle, component, service, SOA, context, context distribution, remoting, service discovery, adaptation, SIP.

D5.2 MUSIC middleware software with documentation (version 1) — by Jorge Lorenzo — last modified 2010-02-09 13:59

MUSIC is a project that develops an open-source software development framework for the implementation of self-adapting, reconfigurable software that adapts to the dynamic user and to the execution context. This deliverable has implemented the first release of the middleware according to the design of the MUSIC architecture provided in D4.2 and to the implementation decisions stated in D5.1 and D5.3. The purpose of this document is to describe the middleware implementation: its structure, the employed technologies, and the contribution of these technologies to the implementation goals. In the document sections we will provide first a global view of the employed technologies followed by a description of the middleware components implementation, pointing out their responsibilities and dependencies in terms of packages and services. For a more detailed documentation of the architecture, see D4.2. A set of annexes has been compiled to support middleware developers as well as third parties. These annexes comprise: (a) information about the external libraries used in the middleware, (b) a guide to set up the development environment, (c) a tutorial to create a context plugin, (d) documentation about the MUSIC API, (e) instructions to install the SER, and (f) a paper about context distribution. Keywords: Middleware, OSGi, bundle, component, service, SOA, context, context distribution, remoting, service discovery, adaptation, SIP

Middleware-based development of context-aware applications with reusable components — by Nearchos Paspallis — last modified 2009-12-18 08:41

Driven by the proliferation of mobile and pervasive computing, there is a growing demand for context-aware, self-adaptive applications. Such applications benefit users by dynamically adjusting their offered services to the highly dynamic context which characterizes mobile and pervasive computing environments. To achieve this kind of sophistication, however, such applications must be capable of sensing the context, and autonomously reacting upon their knowledge on it. Inevitably, enabling this kind of behavior results in a measurable increase to the complexity of the underlying software. Multiple approaches have been proposed for the development of context-aware, self-adaptive applications. Most of them focus on the actual capabilities and features of the resulting applications. However, streamlining the engineering of general context-aware, self-adapting applications is an important and challenging endeavor which has received less attention. This thesis provides research contributions in the area of software engineering support for the development of context-aware, self-adaptive applications: It proposes development methods, supported by appropriate tools, aiming to facilitate the development and maintenance of context-aware applications targeting mobile and pervasive computing environments. This is achieved in two basic dimensions. First, a novel development methodology is proposed allowing the design and implementation of context-aware, self-adaptive applications with reusable components, called context plug-ins. This methodology is complemented with a model-driven development approach which automates the production of parts of the applications, extending reusability to sub-components. Second, a pluggable and modular middleware architecture is presented, facilitating the deployment and management of components comprising the context-aware, self-adaptive applications. At the same time, this architecture facilitates many recurring tasks pertaining context gathering, management and dissemination. The results in this thesis have been evaluated both practically and theoretically. First, the proposed methodology and the underlying architecture implementation were evaluated in the context of two case-study applications. Second, the proposed middleware-based solution was compared to the state of the art over a number of requirements, as they were identified in the literature and summarized in this thesis. Finally, the development methodology was tested in the context of an undergraduate university course where the students were asked to develop context-aware applica- tions as part of lab assignments. The students used the development approach proposed in this thesis, along with the accompanying middleware architecture, to build their own context-aware applications, partly by using the model-driven development approach also presented in this thesis. Their experience was documented and examined via a survey which justified that both the methodology and the middleware architecture add significant value in the hands of developers designing and implementing context-aware, self-adaptive applications. The thesis concludes by summarizing its main contributions and by providing a discussion of key topics for future work.

Service-Oriented Adaptation in Ubiquitous Computing Environments — by Mohammad Ullah Khan — last modified 2009-11-17 16:23

Ubiquitous computing environments may offer dynamically discoverable services that can be utilized by adaptive applications to improve their functionality and quality of service. We have developed a general software development framework for context-aware adaptive applications. In this paper we present our novel modeling concepts that extend an existing component-based modeling approach by serviceoriented adaptation. With our new extensions a dynamically discovered service may replace an application component if it increases the overall utility of the application. We discuss open questions and point to potential solution approaches.

An Adaptation Reasoning Approach for Large Scale Component-based Applications — by Ulrich Scholz — last modified 2009-11-17 14:49

There is a growing demand for context-aware applications that can dynamically adapt to their run-time environment. An application offers a collection of functionalities that can be realized through a composition of software components and/or services that are made available at runtime. With the availability of alternative variants of such components and/or services that provide the basic functionalities, while differ in extra-functional characteristics, characterized by quality of services (QoS), an unforeseen number of application variants can be created. The variant that best fits the current context is selected through adaptation reasoning, which can suffer from the processing capabilities of resource-scarce mobile devices, especially when a huge number of application variants needs to be reason about. In this paper, we present a reasoning approach, which provides a meaningful adaptation decision for adaptive applications having a large number of variants within a reasonable time frame. The approach is validated through two arbitrary applications with large number of variants.

A P2PSIP event notification architecture — by Alisa Devlic — last modified 2009-08-24 11:51

This M.Sc. thesis, part of the EU FP6 IST project MUSIC, presents a P2PSIP event notification architecture where a traditional SIP event server is replaced by a distributed P2P overlay network. Our objective is a scalable, fault resilient, and redundant SIP architecture that meets the state of the art in handling event state subscriptions, notifications, and publications. The users of the architecture - non overlay SIP user agents - continue to transparently access the overlay according to the IETF specifications for event state publications (RFC3903 [1]), and notifications (RFC3265 [2]). The proposed architecture leverages a structured P2P overlay network, an application level multicast protocol, and a modified SIP stack that invokes the P2P functionality. The overlay installs a routing and transport infrastructure that distributes the total processing load among the peers. The application level multicast protocol builds dissemination trees each of which serves a particular subscriber group. It also provisions for the failure and recovery features of the overlay in coordination with the P2P subsystem. Finally the SIP stack receives out of overlay SIP calls and invokes the internal P2P functionality. However, not all the overlay peers need to have a SIP stack; only the ones acting as gateways to out of overlay SIP requests. This design allows for lightweight peers, completely unaware of SIP operations and semantics. Moreover, we are evaluating the performance of the notification mechanism in a mobile environment where the peers disconnect and join the overlay at random intervals. The evaluation is performed with a packet level simulator that introduces a variable churn rate to the P2P overlay network. The simulation results show that the architecture experiences service discontinuities when the overlay connections break faster than the overlay repairs these connections. However it is also seen that, when appropriately configured, the notification architecture can partially mitigate the effect of churn and achieve a stable operation.

D6.3 Modelling Notation for Adaptive Applications in Ubiquitous Computing Environment (refined version) — by Michael Wagner — last modified 2009-07-09 15:17

MUSIC is an initiative that develops a comprehensive open-source software development framework facilitating the development of self-adapting, reconfigurable software that seamlessly adapts to the highly dynamic user and execution context, typical of mobile and ubiquitous computing and thus maintains a high level of usefulness across context changes. For this purpose, MUSIC provides a methodology for the model-driven development of self-adapting applications integrating modelling language enhancements for the specification of context dependencies, application variability and adaptation capabilities. This Deliverable reflects the work done in WP6 for Tasks 6.1 and 6.3 in the second year of the project. Task 6.1 deals with the definition of a modelling notation to express the adaptation capabilities of an application. The modelling notation is based on the requirements derived from MUSIC work packages 1 and 2 as well as the list of MUSIC Features. Moreover, the MUSIC software development method for adaptive applications in ubiquitous environment described in deliverable D6.2 is closely followed. Task 6.3 involves the development of examples based on the modelling notation and development methodology. In satisfying those tasks, the deliverable presents: The MUSIC model driven development approach along with the motivation behind it. List of MUSIC modelling requirements, derived from other MUSIC deliverables and MUSIC features. A study of modelling techniques available from related works and standard specification mechanisms using UML, OWL etc. The MUSIC modelling notation in UML (MUSIC Profile), XML (Schema for Context Query) and OWL to specify MUSIC Context and Resource Ontology, application variability and use of services. An example explaining the use of the UML Profile. The document presents a checklist highlighting the coverage of different modelling requirements and MUSIC features, along with the major improvements compared to the preceding deliverable. Keywords: Adaptive application, context-awareness, context modelling, model-driven development, UML Profile, service orientation, ontology, OWL, OWL-S, WSDL.

D21.1 RATP trial scenarios and pilot services architecture — by Jacqueline Floch — last modified 2009-07-08 14:32

The MUSIC project aims at developing a comprehensive open-source software development framework that facilitates the development of self-adapting, reconfigurable software that seamlessly adapts to the highly dynamic user and execution context, and maintains a high level usefulness across context changes. In that context, the main purpose of the RATP trial is to assess the MUSIC development framework. In addition, the trial is a means to demonstrate and promote the MUSIC technology outside the project. The RATP trial will consist of a set of MUSIC demonstrators that relate to the metro traveller’s needs and will be demonstrated using the RATP infrastructure. This deliverable describes the initial achievements of the MUSIC project towards the realisation of the RATP trial: The deliverable defines several scenarios that describe realistic travelling situations involving RATP travellers or employees equipped with MUSIC-enabled handheld devices. These scenarios relate to different kinds or travellers such as frequent travellers and tourists, and cover different travelling situations such as entertainment, support to persons with reduced mobility or emergency situations. The deliverable provides an analysis of these scenarios focusing on the context and adaptation mechanisms that can be demonstrated by the scenarios. The scenarios illustrate the relevance of various context entities such as user task and location or computing resources and multiple adaptation types such as user interface adaptation or replacement of a local component by a service. The deliverable defines the architectures of applications that are involved in the scenarios. These applications provide support for travel planning, entertainment, communication and medical diagnosis. Scenarios were defined so that applications can be applied and combined in multiple scenarios. This aims at an efficient use of the SW development resources in the project and the creation of more powerful demonstrators. Finally the deliverable provides an implementation plan. The applications and scenarios presented in this deliverable are comprehensive and will only be partially implemented and demonstrated in MUSIC. Application functionalities and scenes that will be realized have been selected in order to allow the project to assess the complete set of MUSIC features.

D2.3 Intermediate research results on methods, languages, algorithms and tools to modeling and management of context — by Nearchos Paspallis — last modified 2009-07-07 14:17

MUSIC is a focused initiative that develops a comprehensive open-source software development framework to facilitate the development of self-adapting, reconfigurable software. This software must seamlessly adapt to the highly dynamic user and execution context, and maintain a high level of usefulness across context changes. Context-aware applications are capable of exploiting knowledge of external operating conditions, and they are self-adaptive by adapting at runtime to varying contexts, like changing user needs and operating environments. The MUSIC project provides a design methodology and distributed system architecture for the design and implementation of self-adapting applications in ubiquitous computing environments. This is complemented with enhanced modeling languages for the specification of context dependencies and adaptation capabilities, supported by model specification, validation and simulation tools. This platform is also used to develop trial services, based on a set of challenging application scenarios with real market potential. These services have a central role: they are sources of requirements, assess technical adequacy of the results, and promote the results. This deliverable provides the intermediate results of the work performed in WP2 and it aims at extending and refining the solutions which are used to enable context awareness. To this respect, several topics were refined, such as context modeling, accessing and distribution. Additional topics were studied, such as the use of a modeldriven development approach for the design of context plug-ins. The primary aim of this work is to provide the dependent Work Packages (within Activity Groups B) with the required input regarding the design of the architecture and the implementation of the MUSIC middleware and the related development models and tools.