Data and Services for Mobile Computing

The advent and phenomenal growth of low-cost, lightweight, portable computers concomitant with that of the Internet has led to the concept of Mobile Computing. Protocols and mechanisms used in Internet computing are being modified and enhanced to adapt to mobile computers. New protocols and standards are also being developed to enable mobile computers to connect to each other and the Internet through both wired and wireless interfaces. The primary goal of the mobile computing paradigm is to enable mobile computers accomplish tasks using all possible resources, i.e., data and services, available in the network, anywhere, anytime. In this chapter we survey the state-of-the-art of mobile computing and its progress toward its goals. We also present a comprehensive, exible framework to develop applications for mobile computing. The framework consists of protocols, techniques and mechanisms that enable applications to discover and manage data and services in wired, infrastructure supported wireless and mobile ad hoc networks.