Net-Centric Computing: The Future of Computers and Networking

Futuristic computers will only be thought of in the context of their ubiquitous connectivity. Net-centric computing isn’t communications or networking per se, although it certainly includes both. With the changes in the computing and networking environment we need a different paradigm for distributed computing. The area of netcentric computing encompasses the embedded systems but is much larger in scope. In the near future, many hardware devices will be interconnected in large and highly dynamic distributed systems, using standard communication protocols on standard physical links [1] [3] [5] [6] [7] [8]. Such types of systems exist only for computers interconnected by TCP/IP networks, or for hardware devices interconnected in small areas by using specific protocols for the physical link, such as Bluetooth, Ethernet or X-10. In this paper we review Net-Centric computing in the perspective of Hardware requirements, Embedded system design, middleware, Control, IT and provide an insight into the issues and challenges ahead.