Mobile Information Systems : Infrastructure and Design for Adaptivity and Flexibility

Mobile devices allow users to access information resources and services over many different distribution channels - anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Technical and usage characteristics of mobile systems are highly variable with respect to user capabilities and context characteristics, therefore an immense level of flexibility is required.Barbara Pernici - with contributions by the research groups involved in the project - presents here a framework for mobile information systems, focussing on quality of service and adaptability at all architectural levels, ranging from adaptive applications to e-services, middleware, and infrastructural elements, as it was developed in the "e;Multichannel Adaptive Information Systems (MAIS)"e; project. The design models, methods, and tools developed in the project allow the realization of adaptive mobile information systems in a variety of different architectures. The book is divided into three parts: core technologies for mobile information systems (e.g., adaptive middleware and flexible e-services), enabling technologies (like data management on small devices or adaptive low-power hardware architectures or wireless networks), and methodological aspects of mobile information systems design (such as service profiling or user interface and e-service design for context-aware applications). It provides researchers in academia and industry with a comprehensive vision on innovative aspects which can be used as a basis for the development of new frameworks and applications.