Unobtrusive Mechanism Interception

Abstract

Networked systems and applications are often based on proprietary hardware/software components that manufacturers might not be willing to adapt or update if new requirements arise. We present mechanism interception, a novel approach to unobtrusively add or modify functionality to/of an existing networked system or application without touching any proprietary components. Behavioral changes are achieved by functionality-enhancing yet unobtrusive interceptors, i.e., components introduced between systems and their environments adding or updating mechanisms. We illustrate our approach by unobtrusively adding a vertical handover mechanism between Wi-Fi and LTE to a mobile end device without disconnecting TCP sessions. Our results indicate that mechanism interception is a compelling approach to achieve improved service quality and provide previously unavailable functionality.

ForestEdge: Unobtrusive Mechanism Interception in Environmental Monitoring

“…In this demo, we replace TTCloud with a versatile gateway based on open source software and components-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware to allow dynamic reconfiguration of all TTs and to have a common basis for the automated analysis of collected data based on the novel concept of unobtrusive mechanism interception [5].…”

“…Especially in congested frequency bands, operating a TT network without collision avoidance is problematic, often resulting in poor reliability. To add or modify the functionality of an existing networked system, we rely on the novel approach of unobtrusive mechanism interception [5]. Therefore, we distinguish between system, i.e., components containing proprietary or other nonchangeable parts, and environment, i.e., components containing modifiable parts under our control.…”