Decision Support-Related Resource Presence and Availability Awareness for DSS in Pervasive Computing Environments

Over the last 10 years, pervasive computing environments and mobile networks have become extremely popular. Despite the many end user benefits of pervasive computing, the intrinsic instability and context ambiguities of these environments pose impediments to data-oriented decision support systems. In pervasive computing environments where users, systems, and computing resources are distributed or mobile, the online or “available” state of decision support-related resources may be intermittent or delayed. Awareness or knowledge of these resources’ online presence and availability can affect the decision making process. This article discusses issues related to data-driven decision support systems (DSS) in pervasive computing environments (PCE) and demonstrates that a decision maker’s awareness of online status and availability can improve decision outcomes. A model for extending DSS resource presence and availability awareness to decision makers is presented and the impact of this knowledge on decision outcomes is evaluated using a management problem simulation.