Abstracts
from Volume 1, Number 1 of MC2R
Mobile Computing: Where's the Tofu?
(Invited Paper)
M.
Satyanarayanan |
satya@cs.cmu.edu |
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA
Introduction
How significant is the recent explosion of activity
in mobile computing? Hardly a day passes without some
new evidence of the proliferation of portable computers
in the marketplace, or of the growing demand for wireless
communication. Support for mobility has been the focus
of a number of experimental systems and a few commercial
products. The growing number of conferences, workshops,
and specialized publications shows the intensity of
interest in this field. Clearly, a lot of very smart
and capable people in academia and industry are investing
their time, energy and money in mobile computing.
But frenzied activity is hardly proof of lasting value.
Nagging doubts about mobile computing persist in the
minds of thoughtful individuals. Are we just riding
the hardware technology curve? Are there any real intellectual
challenges? Are there deep issues to be investigated,
or are we just pandering to the latest fad? Do we have
any insights to offer to the rest of Computer Science,
or are we merely a parasitic field?
This paper is my attempt to answer these questions.
I believe that mobile computing represents a true inflection
point in Computer Science. It forces us to face new
constraints and address new challenges. The problems
it generates are deep, and elude easy solution. What
we learn in trying to solve these problems can be of
considerable value in a much broader context.
Supporting Personal Mobility For Nomadic Computing
Over The Internet
Yalun
Li |
Victor
C. M. Leung |
yalun@ee.ubc.ca |
vleung@ee.ubc.ca |
Department of Electrical Engineering, The University
of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada
This paper presents a new paradigm for nomadic computing
over the Internet called universal personal computing
(UPC), where mobile users can access computing resources,
network services, and personalized computing environments
anywhere using any available terminals. The concept
of UPC and system design issues are discussed, and the
required system architecture capable of managing different
mobile objects, i.e., users and terminals, in the UPC
environment is presented. Modifications of connection
setup procedures between user application programs to
enable addressing based on a global user identity are
considered.
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