The mobiware toolkit: Programmable support for adaptive mobile networking

Existing mobile systems (e.g., mobile IP, mobile ATM, and third-generation cellular systems) lack the intrinsic architectural nexibility to deal with the complexity of supporting adaptive mobile applications in wireless and mobile environments. We believe that there is a need to develop alternative network architectures from the existing ones to deal with the tremendous demands placed on underlying mobile signaling, adaptation management, and wireless transport systems in support of new mobile services (e.g., interactive multimedia and Web access). In this article we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of mobiware, a mobile middleware toolkit that enables adaptive mobile services to dynamically exploit the intrinsic scalable properties of mobile multimedia applications in response to lime-varying mobile network conditions. The mobiware toolkit is software-intensive (comet.columbia.edu/mobiware) and is built on CORBA and Java distributed object technology. Based on an open programmable paradigm developed by the COMET Group, mobiware runs on mobile devices; wireless access points, and mobile-capable switch/routers providing a set of open programmable interfaces and algorithms for adaptive mobile networking.