Newsletter sign-up

View all newsletters

Sign up for our technology specific newsletters.

Enterprise Java

Email Address:

An introduction to the URL programming interface

Create ubiquitous controlled access to devices using UPI

By Rinaldo Di Giorgio, JavaWorld.com, 09/20/99

Page 2 of 7

While some devices have already become widely available on the Internet, the approach described here is more of a style than an API. Lets start with some specific situations in which this technology would be appropriate.

Home network

Earlier we mentioned the growing number of users that have digital bits spread out over two locations, the office and the home. The home network provides access to shared peripherals, computers, and other devices, like entertainment and environmental systems. Remote access to this network is valuable to users that are away from their homes just as it is to those that are away from their offices. Many homes have important corporate data in them in addition to personal data, and we should not rely on traditional access architectures for the sort of security features required. The UPI architecture can be used to build a controlled access environment that provides tailored custom services presented on Web pages; this is an alternative to teaching all potential users of such a system how to use FTP and telnet, and then ensuring that secure versions of these services are available everywhere. UPI makes possible a more pragmatic approach -- putting up services on Web pages and providing these services only after users have given the appropriate cryptographic credentials.

Home automation

Home automation has been identified as a growth area by many companies, which are currently developing products that let consumers better utilize the equipment in their homes. As the home network becomes common and is used for creating and storing important files, users will need to access it from the office or other remote locations. The UPI architecture provides an easy framework for building secure remote access from a Web browser and easily supports authentication, which is crucial when making your home systems accessible via the Internet. In this article we will discuss the application of the Web paradigm to the home automation market, an arena currently composed of hundreds of products with proprietary interfaces, all of which are totally insecure and not Web-enabled. What if we could bring order to this mish-mash so that every device in your home had a URL with some amount of functionality behind it? Better yet, what if you could script applications using HTML that allowed you to do important things, like shut down lights, without running around to every room?

Process control

The process control industry, which, broadly speaking, focuses on the construction of plants that in turn make things like cereal, cars, paper, and so on, can save millions of dollars by replacing its custom protocols with Web-enabled devices. Virtually every plant in the world has its own set of unique protocols for communicating with devices, which adds to cost and complexity. Dallas Semiconductor has developed a product that implements a small TCP/IP stack with Web application support on a very small, low-cost board (see Resources for more information). Some of this technology will be presented in greater detail this coming November at IEEECON. If I were designing a new factory, I would use a Web-based architecture that requires that all devices communicate via Jini or HTTP protocols on the main interconnection network, and support all of the legacy devices with proxy services that convert the specific device protocols into a URL protocol. The only architecture that fits this description is UPI. For example, to read conveyor belt status you might see something like this:

 

Improve efficiency with Visual Studio(r) 2010 Beta 2. - Microsoft

About Us | Advertise | Contact Us | Terms of Service/Privacy

Copyright, 2006-2008 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.