On the Convergence of Distributed Computing and Telecommunications in the Field of Personal Communications

This paper presents and discusses the major trends in two important areas: distributed mobile computing and personal telecommunications. The evolution in these two areas indicates a major paradigm shift towards a merging of computer and telecommunications technologies into a world of mobile, interactive computing and communications. The resulting applications comprise the handling, exchange, retrieval, and processing of data, voice, and video streams as ubiquitous services based on an integrated computing-/telecommunications supporting environment. Based on important developments in both areas, a TMN-based Personal Communications Support System (PCSS) will be introduced, which provides personal mobility and service personalization capabilities in a generic way for a broad range of telecommunication services.