25.4 EMERGING APPLICATIONS

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Network computing brought in revolutionary changes in the history of computing. Many new exciting applications are now emerging. Some of these are:

Application service provisioning
Workflow automation
Supply chain management
Web-based learning

Application service provisioning: Organizations, whose core competence is not IT are now outsourcing their IT activity. For example, a hotel may not like to keep a separate MIS department. Instead, a third party can keep the hotel's MIS software in a server, and the hotel staff use the server to update the information and also obtain the reports. The hotel can have just network computers (NCs) to access the data, and the total maintenance of the server/application software is the responsibility of the application service provider.

Using the concept of application service provisioning, an organization can outsource its complete IT-related work to a service provider. The service provider will host the application software on his server, and the organization only needs to use the application software to update the information and generate reports.

Note

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the catch phrase for the Indian software industry nowdays. BPO uses the concept of application service provisioning.

Workflow automation: In every organization, movement of paper files is common. With the advent of network computing, a paperless office is a distinct possibility as the complete workflow is automated.

Supply chain management: Organizations can link their suppliers and customers through their extranets to automate the entire supply chain. The procurement of raw material and also the delivery of finished goods can be done through a portal.

Web-based learning: In recent years, Web-based learning has caught up to supplement traditional "chalk-and-talk" classroom teaching. One can log on to an education portal and learn at one's own pace. Education portals are available for all age groups, and some universities are awarding formal degrees. Web-based learning is very useful for lifelong learning and work-based learning. The advantages of Web-based learning are:

One can learn at one's own pace.
Educational programs can be designed by recognized international experts, and this expertise can be made available across the globe.
In a traditional classroom, people with different levels and some without the necessary background will be present, and it is difficult for the teacher to carry the entire class along. This problem is not present in Web-based learning because the necessary background can be specified, and only those students who have the background will be taking the class.
Web-based learning modules can be made interactive by providing voice, video, and chat facilities for online interaction between the instructor and the students.
Shy students can open up and interact with the instructor because students are faceless in such interactions.

The various components that form a Web-based learning system are lecture material along with lecture notes with or without voice, e-mail, chat, bulletin board, and online examination modules.

Because of all these advantages, Web-based learning is now being used extensively for continuing education programs. Corporations are using their intranets effectively for providing corporate training in customer support, sales, and so on.

The various modules that comprise the Web-based learning software are: e-mail, chat, intranet radio, and intranet telephony. In addition, a "learning without lectures" module will have the complete presentation material for the module along with the voice annotation. An objective-testing module is used to test the comprehension of the students periodically. The students can carry out the administrative formalities such as registration for a course through the administration module. The databases contain complete information about the students, the faculty, the courses being offered, and the registration details. The complete course material will also be available as a database.

Normally, Web-based learning can be used for offline learning so that, whenever a student is interested, he can log in and go through the course material, send mail to the instructor, and so on. Periodically, online sessions can be organized at predetermined hours at which the instructor will be available for interaction through chat, voice over IP, or even video.

Web-based learning is now becoming more sophisticated with modules for building learning communities wherein a group of people with common interests can form a community and carry out discussions.

Note

For Web-based learning of engineering subjects, laboratory work is very important. Using virtual laboratories, students can carry out different experiments without having the necessary infrastructure in their own premises.

Summary

Computer networks are paving the way for new developments in computer architecture software development and for creating new applications. In this chapter, we studied the various aspects of network computing. The PC reference model, which is now predominant, is slowly being replaced by the network computer (NC) reference model. The main attraction of NC is that it is independent of the hardware platform. Even if secondary storage is not available on the NC, the NC can use the services available on the network. Applications such as software renting and application service provisioning are possible with NC. Another innovation that is the result of network computing is the software component framework. Even if the software components are available at different locations on the network, these components can be glued together or combined to form a software package. Software components help in faster software development.

Dynamic distributed systems are another innovation that facilitate administration-free computer networks. The Jini architecture developed by Sun Microsystems facilitates development of dynamic distributed systems.

Network computing is leading to revolutionary changes—in computer architecture, in software development, in application use and in software distribution, and it is also creating avenues to develop new applications.

References

Dreamtech Software Team. Programming for Embedded Systems, Wiley Dreamtech India Pvt. Ltd., 2002. This book contains a case study for implementation of a dynamic distributed system using Jini.
http://www.hp.com/go/embedded HP Chai Platform enables development of Internet-enabled appliances and embedded systems. You can download the HP Chai Development kit from this link.
http://www.javasoft.com/products/jini You can get the details of Jini and the Jini Development Kit from this link.

Questions

Compare the PC reference model with the NC reference model.
What is a dynamic distributed system? Explain how a dynamic distributed system can be implemented using the Jini framework.
Explain the frameworks for language-independent software development and platform-independent software development.
What is a software component? Explain how the software component framework helps in software development. (Hint: Reusable components).

Exercises

1.	Study an e-learning portal available on the Internet (for example, http://www.techonline.com). Write down the software requirements of the e-learning portal. Prepare a technical paper on e-learning that gives the pros and cons of e-learning.
2.	List the various modules of an e-learning portal.
3.	Virtual laboratories are now available on the Internet. Access the virtual laboratory available on the Internet at http://www.techonline.com and prepare a technical paper on virtual laboratories.
4.	"Web services" is now a hot topic. Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Oracle, and others offer many interesting products and development tools for Web services. Search the Internet and prepare a document on Web services technologies and standards.
5.	What are J2EE, J2SE, and J2ME?
6.	What is XML? List the various markup languages that are derived from XML.
7.	What is a networked information appliance? Explain how an embedded system can be network enabled.
8.	E-governance is now being implemented by a number of governments. List the various services that can be offered to citizens through e-governance.
9.	Internet voting is now being planned wherein the citizens can elect their representatives by voting through the Internet instead of going to polling booths. Discuss the pros and cons of Internet voting.

Answers

1.	An e-learning portal has to provide a user-friendly interface to make learning a pleasant experience. E-learning has many advantages. You can learn at your own pace at a time of your convenience. You need not always be at the same place and you can access the portal from anywhere on Earth. However, e-learning has some drawbacks, too. You cannot have face-to-face interactions with the instructors, and hence you need to use facilities such as e-mail, and chat to interact with the instructors and other students. E-learning is now catching up very fast, and M.S. and M.B.A. degrees are being offered by leading universities through e-learning mode.
2.	An e-learning portal must have the following modules: An e-lecture module that delivers the lecture material. The lecture material has to be supplemented with lecture notes. The lecture notes can be read by inserting voice files in the presentation. E-mail module for interaction between the students and the instructors. Chat module for online chatting among the students and the instructors. Online examination module to test the students. An electronic notice board to make announcements periodically. A database module that stores complete information about the various students. A virtual laboratory module that facilitates experimentation.
3.	To learn scientific and engineering concepts, laboratory work plays an important role. To facilitate hands-on lab work in e-learning, virtual laboratories are used. As an example, suppose you want to learn about digital signal processing. Through the e-learning mode, you learn a lot of theory on DSP. But unless you write some DSP code and run it, you will not get a good understanding of the theory. You can use a virtual lab—a DSP kit will be connected to the server in which the e-learning portal is hosted. You can write the code, run it on the DSP kit, and view the results on your screen. So, even if you do not have a DSP kit, you gain experience on using it—that is the power of virtual laboratories. You can use the virtual laboratory provided on http://www.techonline.com.
4.	Web services use XML, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and UDDI for directory service. Sun ONE development tools and Web Sphere are used for developing the Web services. You can obtain the details from http://www.sun.com, http://www.ibm.com, http://www.microsoft.com.
5.	What are J2EE, J2SE, and J2ME? J2EE stands for Java 2 Enterprise Edition and is used to develop enterprise applications. Using J2EE SDK, you can develop server components such as Java Server Pages, servlets, and Enterprise Java Beans. J2SE stands for Java 2 Standard Edition and is used to develop Java applications on desktops. J2ME stands for Java 2 Micro Edition and is used to develop applications for small devices such as mobile phones, pagers, and PDAs. Such devices have small memory and small display, and also do not have secondary storage such as hard disk. For such devices, a small Java Virtual Machine, known as Kilobytes Virtual Machine (KVM), is developed by Sun Microsystems.
6.	XML is a markup language. It is a meta-language—you can develop new markup languages using XML. WML, XHTML, SyncML, and VoiceXML are derived from XML.
7.	A networked information appliance is a device that is networked using TCP/ IP protocols. Consider a Web camera. The Web camera can have the necessary hardware and software to run the TCP/IP protocol stack software and the HTTP server software. So, the Web camera is an embedded system that acts as a Web server. The Web camera can be connected to the Internet. Anyone can access the Web camera through the Internet. The Web camera can be installed in a floor of a factory to monitor the functioning of important equipment. Such devices are called networked information appliances. Networked information appliances can be of great use to obtain real-time weather information, monitoring of important systems in nuclear plants, and so forth.
8.	For many governments throughout the world, e-governance is the buzzword. In all countries, decision-making by governments is very slow. E-governance is a concept that facilitates collection of the right information by governments, use of that information for better planning, execution of plans through electronic monitoring, and so forth. The citizens can be benefited immensely by e-governance. Payment of taxes can be done very easily. Even obtaining birth certificates, driving license, and so on, governments are providing Internet-based services. Using the Internet, the government departments can disseminate the information so that the governments becomes more transparent. In a truly democratic setup, the government can obtain feedback on proposed legislation using electronic means.
9.	In Internet voting, citizens can vote sitting at their place of work or at their homes. However, it is a long way before Internet voting is used by governments due to security reasons.

Projects

Develop workflow automation software for your department over the LAN. The software should facilitate the automation of the complete leave application process. A student should electronically submit a leave letter, the professor should approve it electronically, and the student should be informed. A database of leaves used and leaves remaining should be kept.
Develop a Jini-enabled PC that will provide a software service such as conversion of a BMP image to a JPEG image. The software package for the conversion available on a PC should be Jini enabled. Another PC should be able to use this service.
Develop an Internet-enabled appliance using the HP Chai Development Kit. You can simulate an appliance (for giving weather information) on a PC. This appliance should be accessed through another PC connected to the LAN.
Develop an e-learning portal based on the explanation given in this chapter.
Develop a prototype for Internet voting. The voting system should facilitate election of the student representatives for your college students union, using the intranet of your college.

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