Mobile information services enabled by mobile publishing (MIS-MP)

• Published in: Wireless networks Vol. 13; no. 5; pp. 617 - 633
• Main Authors: Zhang, Tao, van den Berg, Eric, Madhani, Sunil, Dutta, Ashutosh, Mohanti, Shantidev
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer Nature B.V 01.10.2007
• Subjects: Communication; Computer service industry; Information retrieval; Information services; Information sharing; Mobile communications networks; Peer to peer computing; Publishing; Service introduction; Simulation; Software utilities; Studies; Telecommunications; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 1022-0038; 1572-8196
• DOI: 10.1007/s11276-006-6439-z

Mobile users and devices want to discover and share a growing range of information as the processing and storage capabilities of mobile devices grow. For example, users want to discover nearby networks, and location-based or time-sensitive user information contents. A mobile device may want to discover neighboring networks and the parameters required to access these networks so that it can intelligently decide which networks to use next, and use its existing network connection to authenticate with selected neighboring networks before it moves into the coverage areas of the selected networks. This can significantly reduce handoff delays. Existing service discovery frameworks are not effective for such neighboring network discovery or for discovering dynamic, location- or time-sensitive user information contents. This paper describes and evaluates a new approach--Mobile Information Services enabled by Mobile Publishing (MIS-MP)--for real time collection, discovery, and sharing of network and user information. With MIS-MP, mobiles take full advantage of the wealth of information they can accumulate during their routine mobility and use of networks to help each other to discover the information they want when and where they want it. This is accomplished by mobiles publishing the information they collect about the networks they visited, and the user information contents they learned or used, to make the information available to other mobiles. This paper presents analytical models and simulation results to evaluate the feasibility and performance of MIS-MP. It also describes a testbed implementation of MIS-MP and some of the lessons we learned. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]