Mobile Computing Techniques in Emerging Markets: Systems, Applications and Services

Mobile computing can be seen as a computing environment of physical mobility (Talukdar, 2010). Mobile computing allows transmission of data, via a computer, without having to be connected to a fixed physical link (Koudounas & Iqbal, 1996). The concept of mobile computing entails the use of the Internet and Intranets for communicating and computing while on the move. Typically, mobile hosts are condensed versions of multipurpose computers, with small memory, relatively slower processors, and low-power batteries, and communicate over low-bandwidth wireless communication links (Zeng & Agrawal, 2002; Agrawal, Rao & Sanders, 2003).

The communication involves data and voice communication. Mobile data communication is an evolving technology that allows users to transmit data from remote locations to other remote or fixed locations (Koudounas & Iqbal, 1996). This has been proved to be an essential technology for all, especially to the business community who are always on the move. Mobile voice communication has also evolved throughout the world and varying from geographical locations and local demands, notwithstanding the technology or cost, the number of subscribers is rising fast.

The user of a mobile computing environment can access data, information, or other logical objects from any device in any network while being on the move. The devices are laptops, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and mobile phones. A mobile computing system allows a user to perform a task from anywhere using a computing device in the public (using the Web), education (search engines like Google or Yahoo, content search, indexed contents from libraries, etc.), government (basic information, or levies or taxes), corporate (for obtaining business information), personal spaces (for accessing medical record or address book), social networks (using Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), or infotainment (Youtube, Dailymotion, etc.), or many more. Furthermore, there are many additional things that a mobile computing system can perform that a stationary computing system cannot. These added functionalities are the reason for separately characterizing mobile computing systems (Amjad, 2004; B´far, 2005; Talukdar, 2010).

Many factors have contributed to the emergence and continued growth of mobile computing, including recent advances in hardware and communications technologies. However, this new paradigm shift does not only provide numerous usage advantages, but also created new challenges in computer operating systems development. In terms of mobile computing, these challenges include relatively unusual issues like, security, privacy, inadequate bandwidth, frequent network disconnections, resource restrictions, high cost of technology, quality of technology, lack of reliable standards, power limitations, and foremost, any possibility of health hazard (Welch, 1995; Zeng & Agrawal, 2002; Amjad, 2004).

This book, focusing mobile computing techniques in the emerging market, has tried to provide the latest research and the best practices in the field of mobile computing. In this context, inclusion of theoretical aspects and real life cases on mobile computing would provide guidance to the professionals and researchers who could use this book to be informed about current scenario and applications. With a collection of manuscripts surrounding applications of mobile computing in innovative usage, this book will promote the understanding of the concepts and successful implementation of mobile computing technologies in emerging markets.

The audience of this book includes researchers, scientists, academics, students, librarians, journalists, development practitioners, and individuals. This book will generate remarkable impetus in terms of mobile computing based research initiations, and thus, it will have highly acceptable scholarly value and at the same time potentially contribute to this emerging sector of research.

ORGANIZATION OF CHAPTERS

The book has been divided into three sections; concepts and architectures, applications and cases, and protocols and technologies. Altogether there are eleven manuscripts covering wider range of concepts, designs, and applications.

Chapter one is based on a survey of concurrent literatures on mobile computing, its applications, and challenges. The review has put forwards three applications of mobile computing: learning, health, and GIS. The chapter also discusses a few constraints and challenges that have emerged in terms of design and application issues.

Chapter two describes an architecture for mobile integrated calendar systems where performance, local autonomy, and availability are optimized by using relaxed Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID) properties and different asynchronous replication methods. The chapter argues that by using relaxed ACID properties across different database locations, it is possible for the users to trust the data they use even if the distributed database temporarily is inconsistent.

Chapter three is providing detailed insights into the field of Semantic Web-based context-aware computing for mobile systems. The chapter introduces requirements, enabling technologies, and future directions of such systems. It presents a Semantic Web-based context-sensitive infrastructure that resembles concepts from graph theory and distributed transaction management.

Chapter four illustrates the applications of Graph Theory algorithms to study, analyze, and simulate the behavior of routing protocols for Mobile Ad hoc Networks. Specifically, the chapter focuses on the applications of Graph Theory algorithms to determine paths, trees, and connected dominating sets for simulating and analyzing respectively unicast (single-path and multi-path), multicast, and broadcast communication in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs).

Chapter five presents an approach to extend a real world mobile tourist guide running on personal digital assistants (PDAs) with collaborative filtering. The study builds a model of item similarities based on explicit and implicit ratings. The model is then utilized to generate recommendations in several ways. The approach integrates the current user location as the context and experiences gained in two field studies are reported in the chapter.

Chapter six provides lessons from case studies of two successful and large scale implementations of mobile health (mHealth) solutions and discusses about their choices that were made in the design and implementation of those solutions. The chapter uses Information Infrastructure Theory as a theoretical lens to discuss reasons why these projects have been able to successfully scale.

Chapter seven discusses about various nowcasting approaches in making weather forecasting an application of mobile computing. The study aims to integrate various sensors along with a mobile to provide the capability of data measurement to the vast population which use the mobile and create regional grid networks. The study also uses the mobile for updating weather parameters as well be the focal point of communication of the weather nowcasting information.

Chapter eight presents an approach for addressing vehicle-to-infrastructure communications by means of NEtwork MObility (NEMO) management, including some solutions like, NEMO Basic Support (NEMO BS). The study has described the demanded key features to the NEMO protocols to be applied in the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) context, including an analysis of the fulfillment of these key features by the NEMO protocols.

Chapter nine presents a comprehensive taxonomy of various security threats to Mobile Agent System (MAS) and the existing implemented security mechanisms. The chapter discusses different security mechanisms and highlights the related security deficiencies. It describes various security properties of the agent and the agent platform. The chapter also introduces the properties, advantages, and roles of mobile agents in various applications.

Chapter ten discusses the security protocols presented in the literature that aim to secure the data mobile agents gather while searching the Internet, and identifies the security flaws revealed in the protocols. The protocols are analyzed in the study with respect to the security properties, and the security flaws are identified. The chapter also introduces common notations used in describing security protocols and describes the security properties of the data that mobile agents gather.

Chapter eleven discusses providing an innovative system for tracking and monitoring objects using radio frequency (RF) transmitters and receivers, and querying about these objects using mobile phones. The protocol for the system is presented in the chapter, and a simulation has been applied to check the feasibility of the project under this study before applying it to a real world scenario. A wide range of application in emergency services, landmarks locating, and warehouse management are also explained.

CONCLUSION

Globally, the number of mobile phones surpassed the number of fixed or wired phones in 2003. This is true in many individual nations among middle-income and low-income countries. Telecom carriers are increasingly using mobile and wireless technologies to address the last mile problems, especially in developing countries (Amjad, 2004). Mobile communications will strive to continue to greatly influence the future life of common people and accommodating these issues, entrepreneurs and researchers are working relentlessly to incorporate innovative usage for providing daily life requirements of the each individual in the society. Future mobile computing will see the ubiquitous nature of service in terms of access and technology.

REFERENCES

Agrawal, M., Rao, H. R., & Sanders, G. L. (2003). Impact of mobile computing terminals in police works. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronics Commerce, 13(2), 73-89.

Amjad, U. (2004). Mobile computing and wireless communications. NGE Solutions, Inc.

B'far, R. (2005). Mobile computing principles: Designing and developing mobile applications with UML and XML. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Koudounas, V., & Iqbal, O. (1996). Mobile computing: Past, present and future. Retrieved July 4, 2011, from http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_96/journal/vol4/vk5/report.html

Talukdar, A.K., Ahmed, H., & Yavagal, R.R. (2010). Mobile computing: Technology, applications and service creation, 2nd edition. Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited.

Welch, G.F. (1995). A survey of power management techniques in mobile computing operating systems. ACM SIGOPS Operating System Review, 29(4), 47-56.

Zeng, Q.-A., & Agrawal, D. P. (2002). Handoff in wireless networks. In I. Stojmenovic, (Ed.), Handbook of wireless networks and mobile computing. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.