A framework for building and operating context-aware mobile applications

Abstract

A context-aware mobile framework must support and handle complex context data which is dynamically manipulated in the distributed mobile network. Research in this area has focused on the efficient design of such a framework. However, there are still key problems such as dynamic adaptation, reusability, interoperability, high energy and memory consumption. Our approach to solve the problems of Context-Aware Mobile Applications (CAMA) is to design a framework architecture by using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The reusable, loosely-coupled local and external services allow CAMA to communicate with the CAMA Framework, OS and external service providers using minimum interfaces. The framework supports interoperability, dynamic adaptability and context handling in a frequently changing environment. In this work-in-progress paper, we define SOA, usability and testing requirements for a prototype CAMA and the CAMA Framework. We conclude that our approach will enhance mobile framework architecture to provide solutions to the key problems of CAMA. © 2012 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.