Supporting Location-Aware Distributed Applications on Mobile Devices

TheWireless World Research Forum (WWRF) has identified ambient-awareness and device diversity as two key properties of applications and services in future mobile systems [1]. According to the WWRF, emerging applications for mobile devices will be adaptive, personalized, and context-aware. Ambient-awareness in particular is a crucial issue in indoor applications. Indeed, these applications need to know the physical location of users and other entities (i.e. services and devices), so that they can adapt their behaviour [2], and report it to users as well [3]. Moreover they will be delivered to different end-devices (phones, computers, info appliances) over diverse wireless networks. Despite this diversity, many mobile devices (e.g. smart-phones and PDAs) now support the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) of the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) platform. This platform provides a common yet flexible computing and communication environment that could be fitted for – and shared by – devices having different capabilities. Many modern mobile terminals are equipped with wireless connectivity devices, such as IEEE 802.11 or Bluetooth adapters. As for location-aware computing, no single location-sensing technology is likely to become dominant, since each technology can either satisfy different requirements or suit different devices. Since several technologies will coexist into future mobile systems, such systems will need a high-level software application programming interface for technology-independent location sensing [4].