A Web service for embedded distributed computation

In this paper we investigate the idea of applying the emerging world-scale computing paradigm of Web services onto small-area clusters of embedded systems with limited resources. Our goal is to develop a truly standard and architecturally independent interface for aggregating the unused processing power of embedded devices. This power can be used to support ambient intelligence processing in residential areas, as well as exported to external users as commodity. We have used an embedded distributed computing system described in previous work, in order to show how an embedded generic computing Web service can be constructed. We have identified the limited processing power of embedded devices, as well as the dynamic nature of networks of appliances, as impeding factors for the introduction of Web services into small systems and we propose a hierarchical layered grouping of devices as a solution to this problem.