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Mobile Computing & Networking Research


The Mobile and Pervasive Computing Lab is focused on systems research and experimental aspects of Mobile Computing, emphasizing Mobile Computing Models, Mobile Data Access, Mobile Networking, and Power-Aware Mobile Computing. Individual projects are listed below.



Mobile Collaboration ❯ Ad-hoc, Wireless Collaboration Groupware

Overview

In the recent years, mobile computing has emerged as a new discipline in the field of computer science. Due to advances in technology, portable computing devices have become more pervasive. From smart phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) running embedded operating systems, to portable computers running full-blown desktop operating systems, these devices have increasingly provided communication capabilities that utilize wireless connections. With those communication capabilities firmly established, the next logical step is in the direction of greater interaction between users equipped with such devices. However, current collaborative tools are ill suited for the demands of mobile networks, especially in cases where no fixed-network infrastructure is present.

The main objective of this research is to design a framework for wireless ad-hoc collaboration and to provide an Application Programming Interface (API) that would enable the developers to create custom services and applications using the framework. The goals of our research can be summarized as follows:

  • Create a framework for use by PDA-based collaborative services in a wireless ad-hoc network (initially the 802.11 Wireless LAN environment)

  • Provide a lightweight API that allows developers to create small, and highly optimized collaborative applications that can run on mobile PDAs.

  • Provide flexible API for developers so as to facilitate reuse and rapid application development.

  • Implement the framework in Java for deployment over a number of heterogeneous devices.

  • Develop services (and their APIs) that will include text chat, shared whiteboard, shared images, audio, streamed video, and global positioning system navigation.

  • Develop sample applications using the provided services and API for demonstration purposes.

People

Dr. Sumi Helal
Michael J. Procopio
Corneliu Manescu
Dominik Buszko
Dan Lee

Publications

  • D. Buszko, W. Lee, and A. Helal, "Decentralized Ad-Hoc Groupware API and Framework for Mobile Collaboration," Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work (Group'01) to be held September 2001 in Boulder, Colorado, USA (pdf)