A Dynamic Proxy Based Architecture to Support Distributed Java Objects in a Mobile Environment

Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI), as a distributed object technology, has poor existing support for operation in wireless mobile computing environments. The use of RMI in a mobile environment poses a number of problems related to hardware mobility and the characteristics of wireless networks. This paper describes an implementation of an architecture supporting RMI client and server applications in a wireless mobile environment. Mobility support is provided for in two major components. Connectivity management manages wireless connections and hides the inherent unreliability of wireless media from higher layers. Location management addresses the difficulty of correctly locating and invoking RMI server objects hosted by mobile devices. The implementation is evaluated in terms of transparency and the associated cost of introducing mobility support for RMI applications.