The 5th International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics 2015

August 10-11, 2015, Bali, Indonesia

Advanced Ubiquitous Computing To Support

Smart City Smart Village Applications
Nur Husna Azizul, Mohd Faidzul Nasruddin,
Mohd Rosmadi and Abdullah Mohd Zin
Centre of Software Technology and Management
Faculty of Information Science and Technology
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Abstract computing technology consists of four elements:
user devices, computer networks, servers and software. Change
in any of the elements can cause the computing technology to
move from one phase to another. So far computing technology
has undergone five phases starting from centralized computing to
ubiquitous computing. We are moving into the sixth phase of
computing technology, namely the advanced ubiquitous
computing. Smart City Smart Village (SCSV) is one of the
projects within Digital Malaysia initiative. To support
development of SCSV applications, Honeybee Computing has
been proposed. In this paper we describe the evaluation of the
Honeybee Computing by developing a smart farming application
Keywords- Middleware; ubiquitous computing, Advance
ubiquitous computing;
I. INTRODUCTION
Computing technology started in the late 1940s with the
introduction of ENIAC. At this particular time, computers
were considered to be in the domain of research and they were
mainly used by researchers. Serious commercial use of
computers started in 1951 with the introduction of UNIVAC.
Computing technology consists of a number of elements
such as user devices, network, servers and software. Changes
in any of the elements introduces a new phases of computing
technology. Since then, computing technology has evolved
over a number of phases as shown in Table 1.
The first phase of computing technology is centralized
computing, where all processing were done by a central
computer, normally a mainframe or a mini computer. The
main user devices at that time were punch card machines and
computer terminals. With the introduction of PCs as the main
user devices and popularity of local area network in the early
1980s, computing technology evolved from a centralized
computing into a client-server computing. In this technology,
some of the processing were done at PCs while data were
mainly stored in a server, normally a mini-computers. The
introduction of world wide web in the early 1990s has
changed computing technology into Internet Computing. At
the end of 1990s with the advancement in mobile technology
and wireless network, computing technology once again move
into the next phase, namely mobile computing. Starting from
the early 2000s, convergent of computers and telephones has
introduced smart phone and tablet PCs. Advancement in
wireless telephone network has 3G wireless network. The
combination of these two advancements has caused the
computing technology to evolve into ubiquitous computing.
According to Mark [1], ubiquitous computing is a technology
whereby computing power is available anywhere and at any
time.

TABLE I. FIVE PHASES OF COMPUTING SYSTEMS

User Devices Server Network Software

Phase
1 Centralized Punch cards Main frame Centralized
computing Terminals applications
(1950-1985)
2 Client-server PCs Mini- Local Area Client-server
computing Laptops computers Network applications
(1985-1995)
3 Internet PCs Distributed Internet Web-based
Computing Notebook PCs Servers software
(1995-2000)
4 Mobile Notebook PCs Distributed Internet Web-based
Computing PDAs Servers Wi-Fi software
(2000-2005)
5 Ubiquitous Notebook PCs Cloud Internet Apps
Computing Tablets computing Wi-Fi
(2005- ) Smartphones 3G/4G

978-1-4673-7319-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

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 Currently we are moving from ubiquitous computing into
advanced ubiquitous computing. An advanced ubiquitous
computing is an extension of ubiquitous environment that
improve connectivity between devices. The major
characteristics of this environment can be stated as follows: (i)
Large number of heterogeneous devices; (ii) New
communication technology; (iii) Mobile ad hoc network
(MANET); (iv)Peer-to-peer communication; and (v) Internet
of Things.
Heterogeneous devices include devices such as notebook
computers, tablets, smartphones and wearable computers are
common user devices. Most of these devices operate under
many different operating systems such as Windows, Linux,
Android or iOS.
New communication technology 4G and 5G, new field
communication (NFC) and the introduction of IPv6. The 4G
and 5G technology provides bigger and faster of data
bandwidth and much better than 3G in data performance. NFC
mainly based on Radio-frequency identification (RFID)
technology enables a set of smart phones and devices to
establish radio communication between each other by
touching or putting the device within the range provided
which not more that few inches. NFC is different from
Bluetooth technology, since communication is restricted to
pair of devices. IPv4 limitation that is limited number of IP
addresses has been solve with the introduction of IPv6 that
allows unlimited number of IP addresses.
MANETs and peer to peer system are concepts where
networks becomes infrastructure less and able to be self-
organizing. The MANET topology is dynamic in the sense
that every node can leave or join network without prior notice
[2]. MANETs are very dynamic in terms of available
communication partners, network resources, connectivity and
bandwidth. In peer to peer network concept the participant
acts as a server and as a client at the same time. The terminals
in peer to peer networks are more powerful than the terminals
normally used in a wireless environment [3]. This is because
in the Peer-to-peer network the data exchange is with a direct
link from one computer to another.
Internet of Things evolved starting from the term Internet
of Computers where services such as the World Wide Web
were built. It then changed to Internet of People concept as
the Social Web (or Web 2.0) was created, where content is
created and consumed by connected people (an estimated 1
billion people make up the Internet of People). Due to the
combination links the physical world to cyberspace through
smart device, thus expanding the Internet into what has now
been coined the Internet of Things [4].
II. SMART CITY SMART VILLAGE
Smart City Smart Village (SCSV) is one of the projects
within Digital Malaysia initiative. Digital Malaysia initiative
is an extension of the Multimedia Super Corridor initiative
that has been introduced in the year 1990. The idea of SCSV
was presented and approved by the Malaysias Global Science
and Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC) in the year 2010.
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There are three key objectives of the SCSV: (i) to
accelerate economic growth by providing connectivity and
information/knowledge sharing towards increased
productivity; (ii) to significantly enhance quality of life for the
people in a safe and secure environment to live, work, learn &
play; and (iii) to support a greener environment for social &
economic sustainability through improved resource planning
[5].
The smart communities of the future will be using
intelligent networking capabilities to provide connected
communities that bring together new public and private
partnerships. This community can sustain economic growth,
engaging people of all ages and abilities, addressing on-going
environmental issues, and elevating quality of life.
The aim of SCSV is to improve everything from energy
use to healthcare, education, traffic and shopping by doing it
smart with the help of ICT and green technology. This SCSV
is a compilation of two target the smart city program that will
provide the next level of living, learning and business
environment as well as connectivity for a more efficient and
cost effective socio-economic activities for the people, and the
smart village program that will realize functional of that areas,
as the framework level is approach by the two key scenarios in
rural areas, first namely areas without basic infrastructure (off-
grid) and second is the areas with ready infrastructure.
III. HONEYBEE COMPUTING
Honeybee Computing is a concept based on advanced
ubiquitous computing technology to support smart city smart
village initiatives. The concept is derived based on bee hive
model. The bee represents any computing devices such as
mobile, pc, sensors, and device with embedded software. The
bee can communicate to the internet via the wireless network.
Some of the bees (from two to a thousand) can create ad hoc
communication between them to implement a certain task.
Honeybee Computing is an extension of ubiquitous
environment by adding peer to peer communication and ad
hoc network.
Figure 1 shows the general architecture of Honeybee
Computing to support Smart City Smart Village applications.
It consists of Honeybee Computing platforms together with
predictive analytics and semantic knowledge tool engines for
information management. Some possible SCSV applications
that can utilize this type concept are as follows:
(i) Health care, where doctors, clinics, pharmacies and
insurance agencies can get information from tele-
health servers but can also communicate in a real-
time to provide care for patients.
(ii) Transaction processing in service industry
(iii) Distance learning, where students and teachers can
communicate not only via forum and LMS through
the internet, but they can also communicate in a real-
time virtual classroom and other real-time groupware
applications.
 Fig. 1. Honeybee Computing general architecture
Figure 2 shows the Honeybee Computing node structure
that consists of five layers. The first layer is the application
layer that provides apps for end users, second layer is the APIs
that provides the functions/methods for accessing the
middleware. The operating systems layer is the operating
system for the device and the hardware layer is the physical
layer of the device.
Fig. 2. Node structure of a Honeybee platform
A. Application
Applications or apps can be implemented by using Java or
C++ programming languages.
B. Middleware
Middleware provide service to application to make input
output communication of hardware happened. The middleware
characteristic would be depending on the constraint. Each
middleware are to solve different constraint in different
environment. For example Alljoyn is the middleware for peer-
to-peer environment. Maintain by Alljoyn team from
Qualcomm, Alljoyn focused on solving complex
communications barrier for peer-to-peer communication by
providing simple APIs for the supported language bindings
[6]. Another existing middleware is Globus for the Grid
Computing environment. The Globus Toolkit is an open
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source software toolkit used for building grids that includes
software services and libraries for distributed security,
resource management, monitoring and discovery, and data
management. Globus middleware are maintained by core
Globus Alliance team. Globus provide APIs as the product for
the developers in Grid Computing.
For the Honeybee Computing middleware were based on
the ubiquitous environment with the addition of peer-to-peer
and ad hoc network. Middleware is one of the important
elements as it enables easy interactivity between users and
services whatever the users environment and status [7].
Figure 3 shows the architecture of the middleware for
Honeybee Computing, the service manager, communication
manager, security manager, semantic manager and PA
manager are under basic functionality. Basic functionality can
be access by using the application programming interface
(API). The APIs developed are for the communication
platform between basic functionality and devices.
C. API
The API consists of several packages:
(i) the communication package: provides methods for
devices to communicate with servers as well as to
communicate with other devices;
(ii) resources package;
(iii) security package: provides methods for secure
communication between devices can be established.
(iv) semantic package: provides methods for accessing
semantic class that will return semantic data.
(v) predictive package: provides methods for using the
predictive engine.
 Fig. 3. The middleware architecture for Honeybee Computing

Fig. 4. Setup for Smart Farming Apps

(iii) To communicate with other farmers;

IV. CASE STUDY: SMART FARMING APPLICATION
(iv) To monitor and control farms.
Honeybee Computing has been proposed to support
development of SCSV applications. The evaluation of the B. Design
effectiveness of the Honeybee Computing is done by
developing a sample SCSV application, called Smart The use case diagram for Smart Farming application is shown
Farming.. The aim of this evaluation process is to answer the in Figure 5.
following research question: Get News

Q1: Is the facilities provided by the Honeybee Computing Query semantic

sufficient to support SCSV applications?
A. Requirement Specification Make prediction
The setup for Smart Farming application is shown in Figure 4.
It is assumed that there are a number of farmers who are Send Message
working together. Each one of them manage a smart farm that
is controlled by cameras, sensors and some actuators. Get Message
Farmer
Functions of the application are:
View Camera
(i) To help farmers to get latest news and information;
(ii) To predict prices, demand etc. for agriculture Fig. 5. Use case for Smart Farming Apps
products;

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 Fig. 6. User Interface for Smart Farming Apps

The list of module is identified based on SCSV CustomListAdapter adapter;

environment. Table II shows module for Smart Farming private OnClickListener onClickListener =
applications. new OnClickListener() {
News berita = new News();
String[] content = berita.getContent();
TABLE II. FIVE MODULES IN SMART FARMING
adapter = new CustomListAdapter(content);
Description
Module lv.setAdapter(adapter);}
News To display the relevant new about farming
from a selected new sources. Fig. 7. Source code in Smart Farming application(1)

Semantic To display semantic information about

agriculture and farming industry.
Predictive To enable a farmer to get predictive
information about farming industry.
Communi- To enable a group of farmers to
cation communicate with the server or between
them.
Farmwatch To enable a farmer to monitor the farm.
CustomListAdapter adapter;
private OnClickListener onClickListener =
new OnClickListener() {
String ipNo = ip.getText().toString();
String query = param.getText().toString();
Semantic semantik = new Semantic();
String[] content = semantik.send(ipNo, query);
// Set an Adapter to the ListView
adapter = new CustomListAdapter(content);
lv.setAdapter(adapter);

C. User Interface
Fig. 8. Source code in Smart Farming application(2)
The user interface for Smart Farming is shown in Figure 6.

D. Implementation
The source code to develop the Smart Farming application is
shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8 as follows. Figure 7 shows the
implementation of News module, while Figure 8 shows the
implementation of Semantic module within the application.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The advance ubiquitous computing is new era of
computing technology that we have to explore. This new
computing technology is an extension of the current
ubiquitous computing with five additional characteristics,
namely: support arge number of heterogeneous devices, using
new communication technology, support mobile ad hoc
network (MANET), support peer-to-peer communication and
incorporate the concept of Internet of Things.

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 In term of technology development, a lot of application Term Research Grant (LRGS) with reference number
can be develop to support current technology which useful in LRGS/TD/2011/UKM/ICT/02.
many situation. In this paper we describe Honeybee
Computing, that is a concept based on advance ubiquitous
computing to support Smart City Smart Village (SCSV)
application development. [1]
This concept has been validated by building a sample [2]
application called Smart Farming. This application helps
farmers by enabling knowledge sharing between them. Other [3]
than getting expert knowledge about the farm, the farmer can
communicate to others, while at the same time they can view [4]
the current condition of the farm. This is sample application is
to show with one devices use by farmer, they can get multiple [5]
resource of information that can be in their daily life.
Acknowledgment [6]
This research is one of the Malaysian Government funded
projects under Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) Long- [7]
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