WEBMINDS – Wide-scalE, Broadband, MIddleware for Network Distributed Services
Project overview
National research project funded by the F.I.R.B. programme, aimed at studying and developing a middleware infrastructure for secure, reliable, scalable and reconfigurable wireless distributed systems.
Objectives
The WEBMINDS – Wide-scalE, Broadband MIddleware for Network Distributed Services project, funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the national F.I.R.B. (Fund for Basic Research Investments) programme, aimed to study, design and develop a middleware infrastructure for wireless distributed systems, capable of ensuring secure, reliable and continuously available access to information for both fixed and mobile devices.
Its architecture, based on multiple autonomous, geographically distributed and cooperating servers and proxies, also adopting the peer-to-peer paradigm, was designed to support scalable data storage, access and update services while ensuring security, redundancy and reconfigurability.
Activities and Technologies
The effectiveness of the infrastructure was demonstrated through applications for data access and sharing, as well as multimedia content distribution.
The main features of the infrastructure included:
- Middleware for wireless distributed systems: design of a software layer supporting distributed services over wireless networks.
- Security and reliability: ensuring secure access to information and continuity of services.
- Redundancy and availability: cooperation among distributed servers and proxies to ensure infrastructure availability.
- Reconfigurability: dynamic adaptation of the architecture to different operational requirements.
- Data management services: scalable support for data storage, access and updates.
- Distributed applications: development and testing of solutions for data sharing and multimedia content distribution.
Collaboration
The project involved a partnership comprising research units of the National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics (CINI) and several Italian universities.
Partners:
- CINI Unit of Bologna
- CINI Unit of Genoa
- CINI Unit of Naples
- CINI Unit of Rome
- University of Milan
- University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
- University of Eastern Piedmont
- University of Salerno
Funding and Duration
- Programme: Fund for Basic Research Investments (F.I.R.B.)
- Funding authority: MIUR – Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research
- Type: National research project