Dealing with Mobility: Issues and Research Challenges

Recent advances in hardware and communication technology have made mobile computing possible. It is expected, [BIV92], that in the near future, tens of millions of users will carry a portable computer with a wireless connection to a worldwide information network. This rapidly expanding technology poses new challenging problems. The mobile computing environment is an environment characterized by frequent disconnections, significant limitations of bandwidth and power, resource restrictions and fast-changing locations. The peculiarities of the new environment make old software systems inadequate and raise new challenging research questions. In this report we attempt to investigate the impact of mobility on the todays software systems, report on how research starts dealing with mobility and state some problems that remain open. Contents 1 Introduction 3 1.1 The Architecture : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 3 1.2 Applications : : : : : : : : ..