Layered design approach for context-aware systems

The omnipresent integration of computer technology in everyday applications introduces new opportunities to make software systems aware of the context in which they are used. Such context-aware systems can respond more ade-quately to user expectations. However, modelling the con-text influence inside of software systems burdens develop-ers for several reasons. First, context-dependent behaviour might crosscut the application logic of a software system. Next, since software systems can simultaneously reside in multiple contexts, context-dependent behaviour should be composable. Furthermore, since context information is volatile, these compositions are subject to change at run-time. This paper explores how layered design approaches can be used to deal with these specific characteristics. 1