A Distributed Object Platform to Achieve Nomadic Interactions

Abstract

Network infrastructures composed of wireless access points (e.g. IEEE 802.11 APs) connected via a LAN have been enabling a form of mobile computing known as Nomadic Computing (NC). In order to manage migrations of a mobile terminal among different wireless networks, such infrastructures are often decomposed in several domains: a domain can be a building floor, a building room, or a certain zone of a campus. Since the traditional middleware are unsuitable for mobile computing [1], during the past years a great deal of research has been conducted. Research efforts have been progressed along the following directions: i) providing mechanisms, such as context awareness, reconfiguration, spontaneous discovery; ii) dealing with QoS aspects such as security. While we recognize these studies as fundamental milestones for the pursuit of new middleware for mobile computing, most of them do not effectively explore how the distributed interaction (such as RPC or RMI) has to take place.

This work has been partially supported by the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research (MIUR) in the framework of the FIRB Project “Middleware for advanced services over large-scale, wired-wireless distributed systems (WEB-MINDS), and by Regione Campania in the framework of “Centro di Competenza Regionale ICT”.