Integrating BLIP into Location-aware System: A Service-Oriented Method

Huiping Lin*, Weijie Chu, Tao Gong, Yunlong Ti, Yahong Sun
School of Software and Microelectronics Peking University, Beijing, 102600, P.R.China (linhp*,chuwj)@ss.pku.edu.cn 10817(332, 323, 133)@pub.ss.pku.edu.cn
Abstract-Location-aware systems have attracted much attention from academic and industrial users. Location detection or positioning devices are required in order to get location information. Bluetooth is often used to detect the users location in indoor location-aware applications. This paper integrates the Blip devices, which are based on Bluetooth technologies, into location-aware applications. A service oriented method is proposed to provide more flexibility and extensibility of the system. The prototype of CPH AirNotes with Blip devices is developed to show that the proposed methods effectiveness. Also the performance analysis of Blip is discussed according to experiences with CPH AirNotes. Keyword: Location-aware; Bluetooth; Service-Oriented

Jens H. Nielsen, Amani Naseem

IT University of Copenhagen Rued Langgaards Vej 7 DK-2300 Copenhagen, Denmark (jhni, amani )@itu.dk

detection devices to accurately detect the position of an object. For outdoor applications, GPS is most commonly used to detect the position of an object, for example, LA-GPS (Location-Aware Geographical Pervasive System) [4] and OYT System [5]. RFID is also seen in location-aware system, such as LACO[1] and the location-aware system for museums[2]. For indoor applications, GSM and WiFi is used for location detection is used [6] [7]. As far as the location-aware system architecture is concerned, usually a component-based architecture is adopted, where location detection is designed as one component [2][ 5]. This paper presents an application that utilizes Blip devices in an indoor location-aware system. Blip [8] is one of the location detection devices based on Bluetooth technologies. A service-oriented method is adopted to integrate the Blip nodes with other parts of the system to provide flexibility and extensibility. The paper is organized as follows: firstly, it reviews the available location detection devices and explains the reason why Bluetooth is adopted. Then the service-oriented Blip integration method is discussed. The prototype of CPH AirNotes - a location aware application build for Copenhagen Airport using blip nodes is developed and showed as a case study. The performance of CPH AirNotes is discussed and suggestions on Blip nodes are made. II BLIP NODES Up to now, there are a number of wireless technologies used to automatically collect location

I INTRODUCTION Location-aware systems have attracted more and more attention from academic and industrial users. Some of the location-aware systems have already been put into real applications and impacted our lives. For example, Ohbyung Kwon [1] presents LACO (Location-aware Cooperative Query system), which is used in a big shopping mall-COEX in Korea. It provides shopping recommendations under certain conditions in terms of user profile, location, and privacy concerns preferences. R. Tesoriero [2] proposes a location-aware system for museums to help the visitor to get information about the exhibits in the museum. Katsuhiro Takata [3] presents a Dangerous Location Aware System to alert children on the move of the possible dangers. Location-aware applications can be classified as both indoor or outdoor applications. They uses location

information such as GPS, Active RFID, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. GPS (Global Positioning System). GPS is a U.S. space-based radio navigation system that provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to civilian users [9]. The GPS systems are only suitable for out-door environments because in buildings they suffer from multi-path effects, and therefore perform poorly when the object is located inside the building. Active RFID. Active RFID tags contain a radio transceiver and a battery to power the transceiver. So they can communicate with RFID readers by means of electromagnetic transmission. The location range and location accuracy that can be achieved in an RFID system is essentially determined by the available power of the RFID reader and tag. Wireless 802.11 based networks (Wi-Fi). Wi-Fi is based on the IEEE 802.11 standard series[10], the original design purpose is for wireless local area networks. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth use the same methods, measuring of radio signal strengthRSS, to calculate the location information. The coverage range of a Wi-Fi base station (called Access Point) is about a 100 meters. Bluetooth. Bluetooth technology is an open platform specification for a radio frequency communication protocol for wireless devices. Bluetooth utilizes the 2400 - 2483.5 MHz frequency range. Currently, there are three classes of Bluetooth devices, differentiated by their maximum power output and thus approximate range. Class 1 radios have a range of 100 meters, class 2 radios have a range of 10 meters and class 3 radios have a range of up to 1 meter power. In this paper, the BLIP system is chosen as our location based experimental platform. The reasons why Bluetooth technology is adopted here includes: 1) Bluetooth is widely used by mobile devices (i.e. phones, PDAs, laptops, etc). Most people bring their mobile phones along when travelling. So in our [11]. Compared to Wi-Fi technology, Bluetooth communication consumes very little

location-based scenario, the tracked people dont need to carry additional tags for positioning. 2) Bluetooth is a low cost and low power technology compared with Wi-Fi and other location technologies. 3) The distance between the Blip nodes and item to be tracked can be up to a 100 meters, this means that it will be suitable for most business requirements [12]. III SERVICE-ORIENTED BLIP INTEGRATION METHOD The service-oriented architecture features separating functions into distinct, loosely coupled services and assembling them according to business requirements [13]. Modularity greatly improves the softwares reusability, flexibility and extensibility. The basic idea is to encapsulate the hardware APIs as location-capturing services so that the location-aware application can get location information via invoking the service. Thus, the application is independent from the hardware

implementation. (1) Main APIs of the Blip node system The application interface of the Blip node system is written entirely in Java and is build on top of Java RMI to enable easy development of networking applications. The main APIs include: BlipserverConnection: Defines the methods that can be called to get status information about the Blip server configuration, obtains Blip node handles or attaches the Blip server event listeners. BlipNodeHandler: Gets information about the Blip node, adds or removes event listeners for a specific Blip node. InquiryHandler: Detects discoverable Bluetooth devices. . OppClientHandler: Supports Object Push Profile Client, which pushes images, messages or text files to mobile phones detected by Blip nodes. (2) Encapsulate Blips API as services The location-aware system can communicate with the Blip service through its APIs. However, direct access

of Blip APIs is not recommended because: 1) the Blip APIs cannot provide the exact functions which are needed within the system; 2) application is tightly bonded with hardware implementation, which makes it difficult for application update or extension. In our implementation, the Blip APIs are encapsulated as a location capturing service, which is called Blip Service. Thus, the application is independent

from the hardware implementation, which makes the applications more flexible and extensible. Since in a location aware system, there are usually many Blip devices allocated at different locations, the Blip Service is composed of many instances of Blip Areas Class and Blip Devices Class. The encapsulation is described in Figure 1.

Clients Invoke BlipService BlipAreaClass BlipAreaClass

BlipDeviceClass

Clients

BlipDeviceClass

BlipDeviceClass

BlipDeviceClass

Location Capturing Service

BlipNodesAPI

Invoke

Invoke BlipNodes

Figure 2 Encapsulation of location capturing service As shown in the figure 2, Blip Service is a location capturing service that can be invoked by clients through the Internet. It provides 3 methods through which clients can get location information or send SMS to mobile phones through web service interfaces. The interfaces include: public location){}; // detect location public //push SMS public String getLocation(String btAddr){}; //get location A Blip Service instance is composed of several instances of Blip Area Class, which are used to represent different locations. Blip Area Class has the follow interfaces: public List<String> getAllTerminals(){}; //return a list of all Bluetooth devices Bluetooth address as a String public boolean sendMessage(String terminal,String message){};//send a certain boolean pushSMS(String message){}; location,String terminal,String List<String> detectBTAddressByLocation(String message to a certain Bluetooth device by its Bluetooth address public String getLocation() {};//return the locations name of this area public ArrayList<BlipDevice> getDeviceList() {};//return a list of all Blip Devices in this Blip Area Meanwhile, an instance of Blip Area may be composed of several instances of Blip Devices Class. The class Blip Device represents the physical Blip devices. A Blip device actually has 3 Bluetooth transceivers, which each one has a unique 48bit MAC. When the clients want to detect the location information, he invokes the Blip Service through its interface discussed above. Then the Blip Service selects the proper Blip Area instance to invoke its method. Then Blip Area chooses the proper Blip Device. When a method of Blip Device is invoked, it will select the proper Bluetooth transceivers and communicate with its APIs to get the location information. IV CASE STUDY-AIRNOTES (1) Scenarios of CPH AirNotes CPH AirNotes is a prototype of a location-based

service conceived for use with the Blip node network in CPH Airport in Copenhagen. It is designed for passengers, visitors and services staff to leave digital 'Notes' about their surroundings and experiences in the airport. Once a user registers with CPH AirNotes, he or she receives a Bluetooth message on his or her mobile phone containing a URL linked to the CPH AirNotes website. When the passenger moves from one place to another in the airport, CPH AirNotes redirects them to the URL relevant to the current physical position of the passenger.

that can be invoked to access blip nodes APIs.

UserInterface ContextManagement Service ContextInterpreting Service

LocationCapturingService(BlipSystem) BlipDevices

Figure 3 Service Oriented Architecture of AirNotes (4) CPH AirNotes performance analysis

(2) Blip devices deployment For this service, the Blip nodes in the airport network are grouped into defined areas. An area can be anything from a small square in the building to a scattered area covering every entrance to the airport, for example, bookstore, caf and etc. The system does not need a precise location of the user, only the area the user is in. The Blip nodes accuracy of up to +- 15 meters will therefore suffice. In CPH AirNotes a number of Blip devices are deployed with each area. The number depends on the size of the area. (3) System Architecture The service oriented system architecture of the AirNotes is shown in Figure 3. Three services, namely, Context Management Service, Context Interpreting Service, and Location Capturing Service, are identified. Context Management Service is responsible for context modeling and context instance storage. It is composed of a context modeling tool and context instance management tool. The context modeling tool allows users to define the context schema and all possible static instances during build time. During run time, the context instance management tool will maintain the real time context data. Context Interpreting Service allows users to define business rules to select the proper user application or configure the application according to the particular situation. It also includes a rule engine to execute the rules during runtime. Location Capturing Service refers to the Blip Service Blip

During CPH AirNotes testing, it was found that Blip system could detect almost all mobile phones that have Bluetooth activated within the zone. Also it can efficiently push the message to mobile phones with a short response time and a high performance rate. CPH AirNotes access the Blip nodes through the encapsulated location capturing service instead of calling APIs directly. It was found that service encapsulation did not cause delay of the system response time. The Blip device mainly determines the response time of AirNotes. The main problem found in AirNotes is that the query of Bluetooth devices is too slow. It will probably be the bottleneck of the whole system. The Blip nodes take an estimated 5 seconds or longer to detect a Bluetooth device within the zone. When people enter a place, they usually stay for longer than 5 seconds. So this is not a big issue in AirNote scenario. However, it does not fit the requirement of some real time location detection systems. Also it is difficult to make an accurate positioning because of the tolerance of the Blip node. The Blip nodes in different rooms may disturb and affect each other. An improper deployment may result in a dead angle in which Bluetooth devices cant be detected. V CONCLUSIONS This paper presents a service-oriented method to integrate one of the Bluetooth devices-Blip into location aware applications. A prototype of CPH AirNote is developed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. According to experiences from CPH AirNotes, Blip devices are recommended for those applications that:

1) do not require accurate location positioning; 2) do not require real time location detection (detection response time >5s); 3) is indoor applications. In our future work, multiple-threads location detection have to be considered. Also parallel algorithm needs to be studied in the situation in which many applications need to get the Blip devices information.
[6] [5] [4]

Care, International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, vol.1, pp.657-662, 2006. Dana Al Kukhun, Bouchra Soukkarieh, Erick Lpez-Ornelas, and Florence Sedes, LA-GPS: A Location-Aware Geographical Pervasive System, International Conference on Data

Engineering, pp.160-163, 2008. Amir Haghighat, Cristina Videira Lopes, Tony Givargis, and Atri Mandal, Location-Aware Web System, unpublished. Namgyu Kim, Han Seok Lee, Kyong Joo Oh, and Jae Young Choi, Context-aware mobile service for routing the fastest subway path, Expert Systems with Applications, vol.36, pp.3319-3326, March 2009. [7] Aaron Quigley, Belinda Ward, Chris Ottrey, Dan Cutting and Robert Kummerfeld, Bluestar, a privacy centric location aware system, Record-IEEE PLANS, Position Location and

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The paper is supported by Project Jingling Genie: Context in Service, which is a joint project between IT University in Copenhagen and Peking University. Also the paper is supported by NSFC (Project No:60704027) and China High Technical and Plan Project (Project No:
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No:2009AA04Z120 No.2007AA04Z150)

Navigation Symposium, pp.684-689, 2004. http://www.blipsystems.com/About-1244.aspx http://www.gps.gov/

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