A Model-driven Approach for the QoC-Awareness of Ubiquitous Applications

Context-aware ubiquitous applications are entering everyday life. However, their implementation remains challenging as there exist very few models and tools to guide application designers and developers in mastering the complexity of context information. This becomes even more crucial as the context of a user is by nature imperfect. One way to address this issue is to associate to context information some meta-data representing its quality. We propose a generic and extensible design process for context-aware applications taking into account the quality of context (QoC). We demonstrate its use on a prototype application for sending flash sale offers to mobile users. Through this example, we show how the addition of a context-awareness aspect in an application design process leverages the overall quality of mobile and ubiquitous applications.