Mobile agent platforms in ubiquitous computing applications and systems (a literature review)

Technology revolution has been occurred rapidly over the last past thirty years According to the moor’s law power of microprocessors double every eighteen months. And also a parallel increase can be observed in some other technological sectors such as network communication, bandwidth, storage, capacity. These remarkable trends make us to predict that in future computer will become considerably smaller, cheaper and more pervasive. These result a creation of small things that can access the internet in order to optimize their intended purpose. It gives birth to new technology trend called “Ubiquitous computing”. Ubiquitous computing is an emerging technology that brings new dimensions to distributed computing. It uses a wide variety of smart, ubiquitous devices throughout an individual’s working and living environment. When it comes to ubiquitous computing, mobile objects and mobile agents are forerunners. Mobile agents are considered a very interesting and emerging technology to develop applications for mobile and distributed computing. Since they present a combination of unique features, such as their autonomy and capability to move to remote computers to process data there and save remote communications, they can be widely used in ubiquitous computing. Many mobile agent platforms have been developed since the late nineties. In this millennium era they are now influenced in many aspects of technology such as localization of technology, internet connection, voice recognition etc. This literature review focuses on Mobile agent platforms in ubiquitous computing applications and systems

Towards context-aware ubiquitous transaction processing: a model and algorithm

Transaction management for mobile and ubiquitous computing aims at providing mobile users with reliable services in a transparent way anytime anywhere. To make such a vision a reality, transaction processing for the mobile and ubiquitous computing needs to adapt to the runtime environments dynamically. However, most existing mobile transaction models do not consider the context-based transaction management. In this paper, we propose a context-aware transaction model and context-driven coordination algorithms. They are built on an event-context-action mechanism, enabling the transaction processing to adapt well to dynamically changing transaction context. The simulation results have also demonstrated that our model and algorithms can significantly improve the successful commit ratio under unstable context conditions. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 2011 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Kyoto, Japan, 5-9 June 2011. In IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2011, p. 1-

An Adaptive Context-Aware Transaction Model for Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing

Transaction management for mobile and ubiquitous computing (MUC)aims at providing mobile users with reliable and transparent services anytime anywhere. Traditional mobile transaction models built on client-proxy-server architecture cannot make this vision a reality because (1) in these models, base stations (proxy) are the prerequisite for mobile hosts (client) to connect with databases (server), and 2)few models consider context-based transaction management. In this paper, we propose a new network architecture for MUC transactions, with the goal that people can get online network access and transaction even while moving around; and design a context-aware transaction model and a context-driven coordination algorithm adaptive to dynamically changing MUC transaction context. The simulation results have demonstrated that our model and algorithm can significantly improve the successful ratio of MUC transactions

Can managers use handheld technologies to support salespeople?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose that sales managers use mobile technologies in the working environment to communicate and supportively monitor sales person performance. Design/methodology/approach – A model of supervisor monitoring using mobile technologies is conceptualized that specifies the types of behaviours that promote high-quality working relationships, how mobile technologies increase the likelihood of work-to-nonwork role spill-over that may damage the relationship and why perceptions of supervisor fairness are critical. The paper concludes by presenting strategies for testing hypotheses and for researching mobile technology use by sales managers using qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings – Mobile technology use, supervisory monitoring, and relationship development co-exist in the current workplace. This research heightens awareness of how work-to-nonwork spillover may influence important outcomes of mobile technology usage. Perceptions of quality supervisor-employee relationships are important to retaining and motivating employees. As the workforce ages and skilled workers become more scarce, it is expected that this theoretical examination and ensuing future research will be interesting and important to the twenty-first century manager. Originality/value – This paper aligns research in the areas of leadership, monitoring and ubiquitous or mobile technologies. Previous leadership researches have questioned whether or not the use of different electronic monitoring tools affects the leader\u27s ability to influence others. However, few researchers have examined performance-based monitoring using mobile technologies, although mobile technologies make it easier for sales managers to monitor non-traditional work arrangements (i.e. off-site or contracted work). Furthermore, past research has been inconsistent in explaining how employees view information-gathering or monitoring by their managers

Context-aware platform for mobile data management

Interaction design is a major issue for mobile information systems in terms of not only the choice of input/output channels and presentation of information, but also the application of context-awareness. To support experimentation with these factors, we have developed platforms to support the rapid prototyping of multi-channel, multi-modal, context-aware applications. The Java-based platform presented here is based on an integration of a cross-media link server and an object-oriented framework for advanced content publishing, along with a Client Controller and Context Engine. We also describe how this platform was used to develop a mobile tourist information system for an international arts festival where interaction was based on a combination of interactive paper and speech outpu

On Data Management in Pervasive Computing Environments

Abstract—This paper presents a framework to address new data management challenges introduced by data-intensive, pervasive computing environments. These challenges include a spatio-temporal variation of data and data source availability, lack of a global catalog and schema, and no guarantee of reconnection among peers due to the serendipitous nature of the environment. An important aspect of our solution is to treat devices as semiautonomous peers guided in their interactions by profiles and context. The profiles are grounded in a semantically rich language and represent information about users, devices, and data described in terms of “beliefs,” “desires, ” and “intentions. ” We present a prototype implementation of this framework over combined Bluetooth and Ad Hoc 802.11 networks and present experimental and simulation results that validate our approach and measure system performance. Index Terms—Mobile data management, pervasive computing environments, data and knowledge representation, profile-driven caching algorithm, profile driven data management, data-centric routing algorithm. æ

Interactive Paper as a Mobile Client for a Multi-channel Web Information System

We describe how interactive paper can be used together with a multi-channel web information system to build a platform for experimenting with multi-modal context-aware mobile information services. As an application, we present a tourist guide for visitors to an international festival that was developed to investigate alternative modes of information delivery and interaction in mobile environments. The guide is based around a set of interactive paper documents—an event brochure, map and bookmark. The brochure and map are augmented with digital services by using a digital pen to activate links and a text-to-speech engine for information delivery. The digital pen is also used for data capture of event ratings and reviews. The bookmark provides access to advanced searches and ticket reservations. We describe the architecture and operation of the system, highlighting the challenges of extending a web information system to support both the generation of the paper documents and the interaction from these documents, alongside more traditional access channels. Finally, we discuss the range of context-aware interactions that is supported by our platfor