A survey of quality of service in mobile computing environments

The specification and management of quality of service (QoS) is important in networks and distributed computing systems, particularly to support multimedia applications. The advent of portable laptop computers, palmtops, and personal digital assistants with integrated communication capabilities facilitates mobile computing. This article is a survey of QoS concepts and techniques for mobile distributed computing environments. The requirements of current and future mobile computing are examined and the services required to support mobility are discussed. Generic concepts of QoS specification and management are overviewed followed by an analysis of the QoS work specific to mobile computing environments.