An XML Server for Networked Physical Objects

This thesis examines how to return desired portions of Product Markup Language (PML) files in response to client queries. Information about physical objects will be stored in the form of PML files that reside on servers scattered across the Internet. The syntax of PML is based on XML so we make use of XML technologies to implement the PML server. We use the Simple Access Object Protocol (SOAP) as the communication protocol, Apache Tomcat Java Servlet Engine as the Internet application server, XML Query Language (XQL) as the query language, and the Infonyte XQL engine as the query handler. We also present our implementation for the Tracking Server. A Tracking Server stores location information about physical objects and resides at a node in the supply chain. It is implemented using SOAP as the communication protocol, Tomcat as the Internet Application Server, the MM MySQL JDBC driver as the query handler, and MySQL as the database. We make use of a Tracking Package that implements the distributed algorithms necessary to retrieve the tracking information. Thesis Supervisor: Kai-Yeung Siu Title: Associate Professor Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Sunny Siu, for introducing me to the Auto-ID Center and giving me an opportunity to work there. I thank him for looking out for my long-term interests and keeping my work in perspective. I am grateful to Ching Law and Dan Engels for the countless discussions that provided me with invaluable suggestions and guidance. I could not have done this without them. Ching was my primary source of assistance, and someone I heavily depended on throughout my research. I thank Sanjay Sarma for being approachable and someone from whom I could solicit any type of advice. His general friendliness and sense of humor made him a pleasure to work with. Thanks to Amar for always being there and offering help in any shape or form when I needed it throughout my education at MIT. Thanks to all the brothers of Phi Beta Epsilon for giving me a home away from home. Thanks to Parul, Sneha, Neesha, Amit, Richa, and all my friends at MIT for providing balance in my life and making the last four years so memorable. I owe a special thanks to my twin brother, Paritosh, who has provided me lifelong companionship and has been with me every step of the way. He has been a perennial source of encouragement and motivation. Lastly, I would like to thank Mom, Dad, and Anju for their everlasting love and support.