Delivering Service Adaptation with 3G Technology

Now that 3G technologies have reached their maturity, newly advanced services can be delivered to the mobile user. These include contextaware services, adaptable services and Virtual Home Environment (VHE)-like services. Important research issues relate, however, to managing such services through appropriate service architectures which permit effective adaptation mechanisms, allowing the user to experience an ‘adapted’ service as he/she switches across terminals, networks, and providers. In this paper we present a VHE middleware system and its prototype implementation developed in the context of the IST VESPER project. We place particular emphasis on the realization of a service management approach that enables multi-dimensional service adaptation acting upon the service context. We elaborate on the benefits of our middleware-based solution whose functionality is illustrated through an adaptable multimedia content delivery application. Lessons learned from our prototype implementation are integrated by a feasibility study aimed at discussing how adaptable service management may be achieved today outside a laboratory environment.