Context spaces - Self-structuring distributed networks for contextual messaging and resource discovery

Abstract

Geographical addressing and resource discovery are important services in mobile context-aware computing environments. In this paper we present a protocol that maintains a self-organizing routing backbone that supports these services. Every node taking part in the protocol actively participates in the maintenance of the network. While distributing administrative tasks, the protocol takes into account the context and capabilities of the nodes. The network acts robustly with respect to massive geographical movement of the participating nodes and runs without central administration. We also introduce the concept of context spaces that act as a tool for context-awareness, information filtering, and workload distribution. Context spaces can be used to build complex context-aware systems. Based on our protocol, we also present a new approach for structuring file-sharing networks. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.