Dependability and configurability: Partners or competitors in pervasive computing?

Abstract

To foster commercial strength pervasive services, dependability and configurability concerns must be integrated tightly with the offered functionality in order for the pervasive services to gain enduser’s trust while keeping their presence transparent to him. This paper presents the way dependability and configurability correlate with pervasive services and analyzes their common denominators and their competing forces. The common denominators are used to derive a set of design guidelines that promote the integration of dependability and configurability aspects. The competing forces are used for revealing a number of challenges that software designers must face in pervasive computing.