Dynamically Programmable and Reconfigurable Middleware Services

The increasing software complexity and proliferation of distributed applications for cell phones demand the introduction of middleware services to assist in the development of advanced applications. However, from the user perspective, it is essential that these new phones provide a smooth error-free experience. Despite of the complexity underlying a cell phone, placing a phone call remains a simple task that can be performed by most users regardless of their technical background. Furthermore, cell phones rarely crash (especially compared to PCs) and carriers are able to correct certain problems remotely without user intervention. We advocate for a middleware infrastructure that allows carriers and developers to correct middleware behavior, configure it, and upgrade it, without requiring user intervention and without stopping the execution of applications. We introduce a new technique we refer to as externalization. This technique explicitly externalizes the state, the logic, and the internal component structure of middleware services. As a result, carriers and developers have full control over these middleware services. They can access, inspect, and modify the state, logic, and structure of middleware services at runtime while preserving the execution of existing applications and providing an error-free experience to users. We claim that externalization is the key for the future evolution of cell phones’ middleware infrastructure.