Title: A middleware for information processing in mobile computing platforms

Authors: R. Shriram, Vijayan Sugumaran, K. Vivekanandan

Addresses: Centre for Convergence of Technologies, Anna University, Tiruchirappalli 620024, India. ' Department of Decision and Information Sciences, School of Business Administration, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309, USA. ' School of Management, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore 641046, India

Abstract: The emergence of small, resource-constrained, and highly mobile computing platforms presents numerous challenges in developing and providing new services for users on the move. These challenges demand architectures and infrastructures that are scalable, reliable, secure and personalised. Recently, middleware has emerged as one of the key solutions for supporting next generation ubiquitous communication, and providing additional personalised services over and above those provided by existing networks. To this end, this paper presents the design of a community network-based middleware system for providing personalised information access to mobile users. The paper also discusses a prototype that has been implemented to validate and demonstrate the features of the middleware. Initial results regarding usability, flexibility, transcoding, memory efficiency and display rendering efficiency are discussed. Future work for the mobile middleware and research directions are outlined.

Keywords: adaptable mobile architectures; community mobile networks; mobile middleware; mobile communications; mobile computing; personalised information.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2008.019327

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2008 Vol.6 No.5, pp.646 - 666

Published online: 07 Jul 2008 *

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