|
Abstract
Recent years have seen a sustained
growth of interest in mobile computing
and communications. Indicators are
the rapidly increasing penetration
of the cellular phone market in Europe,
or the mobile computing market growing
nearly twice as fast as the desktop
market. In addition, technologic advancements
have significantly enhanced the usability
of mobile communication and computer
devices. From the first CT1 cordless
telephones to todays Iridium mobile
phones and laptops/PDAs with wireless
Internet connection, mobile tools
and utilities have made the life of
many people at work and at home much
easier and more comfortable. We can
conclude that mobility and wireless
connectivity are expected to play
a dominant role in the future in all
branches of economy. This is also
motivated by the large number of potential
users (a US study reports of one in
six workers spending at least 20 percent
of their time away from their primary
workplace, similar trends are observed
in Europe). The addition of mobility
to data communications systems has
not only the potential to put the
vision of "being always on"
into practice, but has also enabled
new generation of services, e.g.,
location-based services. In this talk,
we will discuss the fundamental performance
issues related to the development
and deployment of mobile commerce
applications and services.
Mobile applications are based on a
computational paradigm, which is quite
different from the traditional model,
in which programs are executed on
a stationary single computer. In mobile
computing, processes may migrate (with
users) according to the tasks they
perform, providing the user with his
or her particular work environment
wherever he or she is. To accomplish
this goal of ubiquitous access, key
requirements are platform independence
but also automatic adaptation of applications
to (1) the processing capabilities
that the current execution platform
is able to offer and (2) the connectivity
that is currently provided by the
network. Mobile services and applications
differ with respect to the quality
of service delivered (in terms of
reliability and performance) and the
degree of mobility they support, ranging
from stationary, to walking, to even
faster movements in cars, trains,
or airplanes. A particular challenge
is imposed by (interactive) multimedia
applications, which are characterized
by high QoS demands. New methods and
techniques for characterizing the
workload and for QoS modeling are
needed to adequately capture the characteristics
of mobile commerce applications and
services.
A fundamental necessity for mobile
information delivery is to understand
the behavior and needs of the users,
i.e. of the people. Recent research
issues include efficient mechanisms
for the prediction of user behavior
(e.g. location of users in cellular
systems) in order to allow for proactive
management of the underlying networks.
Besides this quantitative evaluation
user behavior can also be studied
from a quantitative point of view
(how well is the user able to do her
or his job, what is the level of user
satisfaction, etc.) to provide information
to other services, which can adapt
accordingly. This kind of adaptation
may for example include changes in
the user interface, but also chances
in the type of information transmitted
to the user.
From a telecommunications infrastructure
point of view, the key enabling technology
for mobility are wireless networks
and mobile computing/communication
devices, including smart phones, PDAs,
or (Ultra)portables. Wireless technologies
are deployed in global and wide area
networks, (GSM, GPRS and future UMTS,
wireless broadband networks, GEO and
LEO satellite systems), in local area
networks (WLAN, mobile IP), but also
in even smaller regional units such
as a campus or a room (Bluetooth).
Research on wireless networking technologies
is mainly be driven by the quality
of service requirements of distributed
(multimedia) applications with respect
to the availability of bandwidth as
well as performance, reliability,
and security of access.
Being provocative, one might state,
that the situation that application
developers are facing nowadays in
mobile computing is similar to the
early days of mainframe computing.
Comparatively "dumb" clients
with restricted graphical capabilities
are connected to remote servers over
limited bandwidth. Although significant
improvements have been achieved increasing
the capabilities of networks and devices,
there will always be a plethora of
networks and devices and the challenge
is to provide a seamlessly integrated
access as well as adaptability to
devices in application development
making utmost use of the available
resources.
We conclude, that not only in development
but also from a performance point
of view, the integration of multimodality
and multimedia, the changes in user
behavior, the specific characteristics
of the underlying infrastructure (networks
and devices) as well as the adaptability
of applications and services must
be considered in any analysis and
evaluation. In the talk, we will present
a case study of a transponder-based
mobile service and discuss the problems
and difficulties in performance prediction
and tuning.
Biography
Univ.
Prof. Mag. Dr. Gabriele Kotsis –
Prof. Kotsis received her master degree
in 1991 (honoured with the Award of
the Austrian Computer Society), her
PhD in 1995 (honoured with the Heinz-Zemanek
Preis) and
the venia docendi in 2000 (computer
science, from the University of Vienna).
She was working as a researcher and
teacher at the University of Vienna
(1991-2001), at the Vienna University
for Economics and Business Administration
(2001) and at the Copenhagen Business
School (2002). Since December 2002
she is holding a full professor position
at the Telecooperation Department
at the Johannes Kepler University
Linz. Her research interests include
performance management of computer
systems and networks, workgroup computing,
mobile and Internet computing, telemedia
and telecooperation. She has experience
in national and international research
project in those areas, including
for example the EU-funded international
BISANTE project on network traffic
modelling and simulation, where she
was technical leader, or the EMMUS
project on Multimedia Usability where
she was project coordinator. Gabriele
is author of numerous publications
in international conferences and journals
and is co-editor of several books.
She is member of IEEE and ACM and
acting president of the AustrianComputer
Society. She is actively participating
in the organization of international
conferences.
|
