A distributed architecture for mobile, location-dependent applications

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-58).As pervasive computing becomes a reality, users will be able to interact with computing services which will all work together in a seamlessly integrated system. Resource discovery is a key feature of pervasive computing which allows users simple and convenient access to resources. While there are several resource discovery systems in existence which are essential to pervasive computing, the support for location-based resource discovery is uncommon. The goal of this work is to integrate a location-support system with a resource discovery system to support location-based resource discovery. Our integrated system provides an in-building solution which is cost-effective, scalable, and distributed. In order to protect the user's privacy, the system provides location discovery services without receiving any information from the user. We have also implemented a simple scripting language which thin clients can use to control and interact with network services. To demonstrate the power and functionality of this system, we have deployed several location-dependent applications including a map-based service discovery application with little manual configuration.by Anit Chakraborty.M.Eng