iConnect

iConnect aims to deliver to the open source community emergent middleware enablers supporting interoperability across networked systems.

The pervasive computing vision is hampered by the extreme level of heterogeneity in the underlying infrastructure, which impacts on the ability to seamlessly interoperate. Furthermore, the fast pace at which technology evolves at all abstraction layers increasingly challenges the lifetime of networked systems in the digital environment.

Given the fact that we are moving towards a world where everything is connected, the iConnect project targets to provide a universal solution towards interoperability between highly heterogeneous systems by reconciling behavioral discrepancies, from the application down to the middleware layer. To achieve this, iConnect introduces at the application layer, tools for abstracting and semantically annotating the functionality of systems so as to enable the discovery and coordination with other relevant ones. Then, at the middleware layer, complementary tools are responsible for translating messages that are transmitted between systems that implement heterogeneous interaction paradigms or communication protocols.

Key features of iConnect include:

1. Introduction of enablers for universal discovery of resources, composing legacy discovery protocols
2. Synthesis and deployment of mediators specified as enhanced labeled transition systems towards allowing networked systems that have compatible functionalities to interact despite mismatching interfaces and/or behaviors
3. Cross-paradigm and cross-protocol interoperability with the use of the XSB (eXtensible Service Bus) and the LSB (Light Service Bus) middleware components

iConnect is developed in the context of the FISSi initiative and is based on the outcomes of the CONNECT and CHOReOS FP7 projects. The project will take advantage of the OW2's forge for hosting and exposing the project's code and documentation along with the bug tracker and mailing lists for supporting the development's needs.

iConnect aims to deliver to the open source community emergent middleware enablers supporting interoperability across networked systems. One of the goals of iConnect is to maintain and extend the existing code-base that was produced during the recently completed Connect and CHOReOS (FP7) projects.