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AN EMPIRICAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

APPROACH TO U-HEALTHCARE IN MOBILE CLOUD

COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

Project Proposal

by

CMPE 295A

Ishita Shah

Pinky Shah

Snigdha Gulhati

Project Advisor

Prof. Weider Yu

October 25, 2011

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ABSTRACT

AN EMPIRICAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO U-

HEALTHCARE IN MOBILE CLOUD COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

By Ishita Shah, Pinky Shah and Snigdha Gulhati

Nowadays, mobile computers in form of smart phones and tablets are extensively used to

obtain ubiquitous computing power making mobility the way of life. Taking the case of

the healthcare industry, patients demand for anytime anywhere, easy-to-access healthcare

information making mobile devices as the next generation service delivery platform for

u-health care solution. However, mobile devices are typically constrained by limited

memory, low processing power, restricted data network connection, small cache size and

battery powered computing environment. As a result, these devices are inefficient to

handle compute intensive applications involving large scale data management, security

algorithms and so on. Cloud computing with its new delivery model can extend

capabilities of these resource constrained devices. However, mobile cloud computing has

its own limitations like network bandwidth, absence of standards, access schemes,

security etc. Our basic intent in this project would be to study the various software

development approaches in the area of Mobile cloud computing, exploring their

limitations and shortcomings with focus on security, and defining an approach to

overcome some of the security related issues, thereby developing secure personal

healthcare applications using mobile cloud computing. We would define an approach, a

process and an implementation in the form of a prototype, with results for validation.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Problem statement, motivation, and needs

1.2 Project application and impact

1.3 Expected project results and deliverables

Chapter 2 Background and Related Work

2.1 Background and used technologies

2.2 State-of-the-art

2.3 Literature survey

Chapter 3 Project Description

3.1 Project goals and objectives

3.2 Project approaches

3.3 Project solutions and justification

3.4 Project evaluation and validation

Chapter 4 Project Plan and Schedule

4.1 Project tasks and schedule

4.2 Project resources, budget, and cost analysis

Reference

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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Problem statement, project motivation, and needs

Currently, mobile devices in the form of smart phones and tablets are vital sources of

communication. They provide global connectivity to support large number of applications,

providing anytime and anywhere access to reliable information. Health care industry is one

of the most prominent industries where mobile devices are considered as the service delivery

platform for u-health care solution which will enable people to access on-demand reliable

health care information. However, mobile devices are resource constrained in terms of

memory, processing power, cache size and battery life. As a result, they are unable to handle

compute intensive applications like data mining, searching, multimedia processing and so on.

Cloud computing with its new delivery model can be used with mobile devices to overcome

the above mentioned limitations. But, mobile cloud computing is at its early stage and has

some issues associated with it and, lack of security is one of the major issues. Security is a

very broad term and there are various levels of security within a mobile cloud which are to be

addressed. However, we consider Identity Access Management and Data Encryption to be

the most important security issues that need to be addressed for enterprise level mobile

applications on the cloud. And so, we are motivated to develop a secure development

approach solving the above mentioned security threats in mobile cloud and validate it by

developing a prototype of a u-healthcare application in cloud for mobile devices.

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1.2 Project application and impact

In this project, we aim to study various mobile cloud computing (MCC) development

approaches and then propose an approach for developing secure mobile enterprise level

applications on cloud that would address Identity Access Management and Data Encryption

security issues. This would give an insight about the mobile cloud architecture as well as

solve the identified security concerns. Moreover, the development approach could be used by

developers to develop robust and secure enterprise-level applications on the cloud.

1.3 Expected project results and deliverables

The major deliverables for this project are as follows:

Development approach.

Implementation of the development approach in the form of a prototype of u-health

care solution with the aim of validating the development approach.

Test cases used to verify the development approach and its results.

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Chapter 2 Background and Related Work

2.1 Background and used technologies

Cloud Computing enables on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable

computing resources (e.g. applications, networks, servers, storage and services) that can be

released and provisioned with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. It

is the most promising technology and is a mechanism to increase the overall IT capabilities

of a company in real time without investing a huge amount in new infrastructure, training,

software licenses and so on. It follows pay-as-per-use model wherein a company pays

according to resources used in the cloud. There are three main models of using cloud

architecture which are as follows:

Software As A Service (SAAS)

o Software is provided as a service by the vendor

Platform As A Service (PAAS)

o Programming tools are provided as a service by the vendor which can be used by the

customers to build their applications.

Infrastructure As A Service (IAAS)

o Computing resources such as storage, processing, networking and so on are provided

by the vendor as a service.

There are various benefits of Cloud Computing which are as follows:

Easy to deploy which reduces the overall time

Pay-as-per-use model reduces infrastructure investment.

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Ability to use scale up and down when needed.

Ability to use latest functionalities.

Increase the overall capabilities of resource constrained devices in real time.

A mobile device when used with Cloud architecture to store data or perform operations is

known as Mobile Cloud Computing (a.k.a. MCC). Using mobile cloud computing

architecture, consumers can access the services on-demand either through browser or a thin

client on their mobile devices. This is different from “thicker” clients that are downloaded

from application stores and reside on the mobile devices. Mobile cloud services are

independent of the type of device and operating system on which they run. Moreover, the

resource constrained nature of mobile devices could be overcome by MCC.

Figure 2.1: Mobile Cloud

Cloud architecture is mostly provided by a third party infrastructure known as Cloud

Service Providers (CSP) and each one of them has their own unique cloud architecture,

features and standards. Some of the major CSPs are Amazon, Google, VMware,

Rackspace, Salesforce.com, Microsoft and IBM.

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Though MCC is highly beneficial, lack of security is a major concern with it. There is a

security risk to confidential data residing in the cloud as the customer has to depend on the

security measures provided by its CSP. Moreover, cloud is accessed over the network and so

there is major threat of data being tampered during transfer on the network.

2.2 State-of-the-art technology

As described in [5], mobile devices have brought about a revolution in the area of mobile

computing. The model of exploiting the benefits of Cloud Computing has helped to

overcome the many constraints of mobile devices related to data management, processing

power, algorithms and many more, as discussed in previous sections.

The area of Mobile Cloud Computing is new. According to experts, by 2015, more than 240

million customers are expected to be making use of the cloud computing services through

mobile devices and the market is believed to grow to a whopping $5.2 billion. The reason for

this growth is attributed to an evolving IT supply chain, adoption of cloud platforms for IT

services and greater use of handsets and smart phones [6]. This has triggered a lot of research

in this area and various mobile cloud development approaches have been suggested to

improve the capacity and reliability of mobile devices.

One approach proposes the use of RESTful Webservices [10] to access applications hosted as

the cloud. This makes use of the SAAS deployment model of the Cloud. In this approach

mobile devices rely over network node available in the cloud for more processing

capabilities, storage and security via RESTful web services.

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Another approach focuses on providing elastic applications [2]. In this, the application in

divided into multiple components called “weblets” to provide elastic middleware. The

decision to launch a weblet is based on application configuration and device status (like

battery level). The architecture of elastic framework is provided in Figure 2.2 below.

However there are certain areas in this approach which need to be considered like data and

state synchronization, Communication between weblets, Weblet migration and Trust and

Security.

Figure 2.2 – Elastic framework architecture [2]

There is one more approach which introduces the concepts of cloudlets as shown in Figure

2.3 [7]. A Cloudlet is a virtual cloud, in the form of a resource-rich, secure computer or a

cluster of computers. The mobile device, instead of sending data to or receiving data from a

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distant cloud, could connect to a nearby cloudlet in order to reduce latency. If the request is

not fulfilled by a cloudlet, the mobile device could then contact the distant cloud.

Figure 2.3 – Cloudlet concept [7]

Although cloudlet approach reduces the latency of requests, there could be issues related to

it like dividing the storage between cloudlets, managing security etc. Also, more the

number of cloudlets, more can there be points of attacks.

Our approach intents to address some of the security related issues like Identity Access

Management and Data Encryption for mobile cloud application which are paramount in

Healthcare applications.

2.3 Literature survey

Various papers were studied and examined for this project. The paper in [9] discusses the

architecture of mobile cloud computing in detail, along with its various applications,

benefits, challenges and approaches. The usage of cloud computing in mobile healthcare

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services is discussed in [8]. The various security related challenges in mobile cloud, and

how to secure mobile cloud is provided in a paper presented in [1]. Cloud Alliance’s report

on top cloud threats is provided in [12]. Also, there is a detailed Security Guidance

published by Cloud Alliance which lists some security related guidelines that cloud

providers should follow [13]. Paper in [11] covers a detailed discussion of the usage of

SOA methodology in cloud.

The mobile cloud development approaches are discussed in various papers. Details about

RESTful approach are provided in [10]. The Elastic approach architecture is explained in

detail in [2]. Paper [7] explains the Cloudlet approach and its benefits and challenges.

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Chapter 3 Project Description

3.1 Project goals and objectives

In order to overcome the limitations of mobile devices, a new “Modern Mobile Architecture”

[1] is described which is a combination of Mobile and Cloud Computing technologies.

However, introducing cloud in mobile internet results in more concerns to be addressed by

currently used mobile architecture. As mentioned in previous sections there are various

approaches proposed for mobile cloud computing. The goal of our project is:

Study basic architecture of mobile cloud computing.

Identify the security issues related to mobile and cloud technology.

Propose a software development approach which can mitigate following security

related issues :

o Identity Access Management

o Data Encryption

Validate the proposed approach by developing prototype for personal u-health care.

3.2 Project approaches

In order to have a working model of our approach, we will develop a prototype for personal

health care management demonstrating our design/approach. Prototyping will help us to

identify design flaws and make sure that our approach really works. It will not be a full

fledged application but it will highlight all the aspects of the final solution.

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We would like to use SOA based architecture for this project. SOA based architecture will

help us to develop and design software components based on interoperable services. Its main

concept is “Service is Important”. For Mobile applications service delivery is a key point.

SOA architecture provides more flexibility and scalability.

3.3 Problem solutions and justification

As from above discussion it clearly shows that cloud with its new delivery and cost model

proves to be the best solution for mobile constrained devices to handle compute intensive

applications. Mobile Cloud computing is a very new area and is currently in research. Our

approach provides a new way for developing mobile cloud applications. This approach will

help to increase the processing power, reduce security risk and provide better performance

for mobile applications. This clearly justifies our solution to current problems faced by

mobile applications. The high level system architecture diagram is shown in Figure 3.1.

The main components of our design will be:

Cloud

Mobile devices

Web Server and Webservices

Device Manager.

The role of Device Manager would be to fulfill client requests either from the local web

server or send it to the Cloud server considering certain parameters like processing power

and security.

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Figure 3.1 – High level System Architecture

The web service for our mobile application would be deployed on Cloud as well as a Web

Server outside the cloud and its multiple copies would reside in the cloud to provide highly

available and reliable environment to serve multiple requests from clients. The Web Server

which is not on the cloud will be used to handle less compute intensive operations and highly

confidential data.

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3.4 Project evaluation and validation

Various activities would be conducted to evaluate the outcome of the project and validate our

results.

In order to evaluate the project and verify that all the requirements have been met, we would

be performing unit and integration testing of the various modules of the prototype. Testing

would involve both Black box and White box testing techniques. Test cases would be

carefully generated based on the requirements identified in Chapter 4 of the project report. A

Requirement Traceability Matrix would be designed to make sure that all the test cases are

traceable to the requirements, and a test execution report would be generated.

To validate our approach, we would be using the developed prototype to check the efficiency

and effectiveness of the new approach. Also, we would be making sure that the security

issues identified by us are addressed.

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Chapter 4 Project Plan and Schedule

4.1 Project Tasks and Schedule

Preparing a high quality, realistic schedule is one of the most important activities in a project

lifecycle. A good schedule helps in successful completion of the project with minimum

budget overflows and deadline slippage. In order to come up with a good schedule, the first

step is to understand the requirements correctly.

The schedule for this project is divided into various phases, as shown in Figure 4.1 –

Figure 4.1: Project phases

We have provided a detailed schedule for Part A and Part B of the project. Figure 4.2 shows

a Gantt chart containing the detailed project schedule for Part A. Figure 4.3 shows a Gantt

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chart containing the detailed project schedule for Part B. The task assignment details are also

included in the chart. We have used GanttProject, an open source, cross-platform tool for

project scheduling and management.

Figure 4.2: PART A - Detailed Task list

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Figure 4.3: PART B – Detailed Task List

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4.2 Project Budget, Resources, and Cost Analysis

4.2.1 Budget

Project Title :

AN EMPIRICAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO U

HEALTHCARE IN MOBILE CLOUD COMPUTING

ENVIRONMENT

Team

Members

Ishita Shah

Pinky Shah

Snigdha Gulhati

Project Period 08/24/2011 - 05/31/2012

Items # Cost/item

Semester 1

(8/24/2011 -

12/02/2012)

Semester 2

(01/25/2012 -

05/31/2012)

Equipment

Laptops 3 $ 1500 $ 1500 $ 0

Software

Licenses

- $ 0 (open

source s/w)

$ 0 $ 0

Tablet 1 $250 - $250

Android Phone 1 $150 - $150

Stationary and

Printouts

Variable Variable Approx.

$100

Approx.

$100

Indirect

Costs

Internet Charges Variable Variable $ 200 $ 200

Telephone and

calling charges

Variable Variable $100 $100

Other hidden

costs

Variable Variable $100 $200

Total Cost : $2000 $1000

There is a huge collection of good quality, well supported open source software solutions

available in the market and most of the companies today are turning to these cost effective

solutions. We would like to make use of this revolution by using open source software for

this project as far as possible. So, there would be no cost associated with Software

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Licensing. In case there is a need for a software or tool which is not available as open

source, the budget would be revisited.

The equipment needed for project design and coding, for example laptops/ desktops, and

other devices are already available. So, that doesn’t contribute to the budget. Tablets and/or

Android phones required for testing the prototype would have to be purchased (if not

available otherwise) and hence, would add to the budget during the second part of the

project. Other costs like stationary and printouts, indirect costs like Internet and Telephone

charges, and a few hidden costs are considered in the budget.

Since no salary is paid as this is a Masters project, we have not included that cost in the

budget. However, the Cost Analysis in terms of Effort in hours is provided in Section 4.2.3

below.

Overall, the budget for the Part A of the project comes to an amount of about $2000, and

the budget for Part B is about $1000.

4.2.2 Resources

The resources required for this project are -

1. Laptops

2. Android Emulator

3. Tablet and Android Phone for testing

4. A team of 3 people would be working on this project, and they would assume roles of

Design Engineers, Developers and Testers as and when required.

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4.2.3 Cost Analysis

Following is a cost analysis of the resources required in terms of effort hours required

during each phase. Here we have assumed that each person would be spending

approximately 4 hours each project day. Since this is Master’s project and there is no salary

being paid, the cost analysis is only done in terms of Effort Hours.

Phase # of Resources Duration Effort per

person per day

Total effort (in

hours)

Conception and

Planning

3 67 4 804 hours

Requirement

Gathering

3 7 4 84 hours

Design 3 30 4 360 hours

Development 3 63 4 756 hours

Testing 3 35 4 420 hours

Validation 3 30 4 360 hours

Total Effort for the entire project 2784 person

hours

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References

[1] J. Christensen, “How will we secure the Mobile Cloud? part 1: Mobile Cloud authentication

and authorization”, Cloud Computing Journal, Jun. 14, 2010 [cited Sep. 30,2011], available

from World Wide Web: http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1419017

[2] X.Zhang, A. Kunjithapatham, S. Jeong, and S. Gibbs, “Towards an Elastic Application

Model for Augmenting the Computing Capabilities of Mobile Devices with Cloud Computing”,

Mobile Networks and Applications, vol. 16, Issue 3, June 2011, pp. 270-284,

doi: 10.1007/s11036-011-0305-7.

[3] D. Huang; Z. Zhou; L.Xu, T.Xing, and Y. Zhong, "Secure data processing framework for

mobile cloud computing," Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), 2011

IEEE Conference, pp.614-618, April 10-15 2011, doi: 10.1109/INFCOMW.2011.5928886

[4] M. Spinola, “A pragmatic, effective and hpye-free approach for strategic enterprise decision

making” [online], June 2009, [cited Oct. 19, 2011], available from World Wide Web:

<http://www.gtsi.com/eblast/corporate/cn/09_09_2009/PDFs/Essential%20Guide%20for%20Clo

ud%20Computing.pdf>

[5] E. McLoughlin, D. O'Sullivan, M. Bertolotto, and D.C. Wilson, “MEDIC: MobilE Diagnosis

for Improved Care”, In Proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on Applied computing (SAC

'06). ACM New York, 2006, pp. 204-208, doi:10.1145/1141277.1141325.

[6] M. Torrieri, “Appliance deployment report: Enterprise mobile cloud computing market to

grow to $5.2 billion by 2015”[online], TMCnet, January 12, 2010[ Cited Oct 14, 2011], available

from World Wide Web: <http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/appliance-

deployment/articles/72476-appliance-deployment-report-enterprise-mobile-cloud-computing-

market.htm>

[7] M. Satyanarayanan, P. Bahl, R. Caceres, and N. Davies, “The Case for VM-Based Cloudlets

in Mobile Computing,” IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 14-23, October 2009.

[8] M. T. Nkosi and F. Mekuria, Cloud computing for enhanced mobile health applications,

presented at Cloud Computing Technology and Science (CloudCom), 2010 IEEE Second

International Conference, Nov. 30 -Dec. 3, 2010, pp. 629 – 633, doi:

10.1109/CloudCom.2010.31 .

[9] H.T. Dinh, C. Lee, D. Niyato, and P. Wang, “A Survey of Mobile Cloud Computing:

Architecture, Applications, and Approaches”, Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing,

to appear.

[10] Jason H. Christensen, “Using RESTful web-services and cloud computing to create next

generation mobile applications,” in Proceedings of the 24th ACM SIGPLAN conference

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companion on Object oriented programming systems languages and applications (OOPSLA),

pp. 627-634, October 2009.

[11] Cloud Security Alliance, Top threats to cloud computing, version 1.0, March 2010,

available from World Wide Web:

<https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/topthreats/csathreats.v1.0.pdf>

[12] Cloud Security Alliance, Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud

Computing, version 2.1, December 2009, available from World Wide Web:

<https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/csaguide.pdf>