Toward ubiquitous environments for mobile users

Abstract

A computational paradigm that lets processes migrate with users would support truly ubiquitous computing environments. The article investigates the technical problems that must be solved to accommodate this model and examines some systems that are addressing the problems now. The review of current systems addressing these issues reveals that it is now possible to engineer a system in which the user's entire environment is available wherever and whenever it is required. However, the provision of such an environment represents a considerable engineering effort and many significant choices. At the University of Stirling, we are currently investigating these choices in the construction of a ubiquitous environment based on Java.