Middleware For Pervasive Computing Technology And Applications

As the information technologies are improving dramatically, it has beenchanging radically for the computing pattern in the 21th century. It is a certain trendfor the computing science that the pervasive computing is replacing the distributedmobile computing. The pervasive computing is a kind of ubiquitous computing. In anenvironment for pervasive computing, all the instruments are computing continuallyto afford client-oriented, uniformed and self-adapted network service. The pervasivecomputing is just a human's perspective for the future world; however it is changingtremendously in all walks of aspects accompanied by the emergence of the pervasivecomputing.The pervasive computing puts emphasis on the integration of the computer and thesurroundings or the daily tools, in that the computer itself can disappear from thehuman's life in order to make the people's main concerns return to the work tocomplete. The main aim of pervasive computing is to establish an environment whichhas the ability of computing and communication,so that people can be integrated intothe environment at the same time. As the definition presented by professor XuGuang-you[6], the pervasive computing is the integration of information space andphysical space, in which people can acquire digital services pellucidly and easily.Technically speaking, it is required that the pervasive computing should have highsensitivity of the environmental information; the interaction of people and machineshould be more natural; the automatic deployment and self-adaptation of the devicesand the network should be more powerful, so the research of pervasive computingincludes middle ware, mobile computing, interaction of people and machine,technology of embedding, sensors and network etc. Despite the existence of all kindsof components in different technical fields for designing the pervasive computing, ifyou want make it a united platform seamlessly, you must take the middle ware be themain technology. The middle ware is the software layer between operation system andapplication software, which provides services for all kinds of application software,and they are different processes that can communicate with each other throughnetwork under the circumstances without the platform difference. We can see thatmiddle ware is a bunch of software but not a software; the middle ware doesn't justconnect each other, moreover it can realize the operation among programs; the middleware is based on the distributed software, especially focus on the communication ofnetwork. This also restrict the situation that when applied in the distributed systems itcan really be called middle ware, and departs from supporting software andapplication software.This issue begins with the features of pervasive computing and the construction of software, on the base of which researches their demand for basis software-middleware. The main aim of this article is to solve the mismatch between computerapplication technology and theory and the pervasive computing, so that the formerone can accommodate the meets of the latter one. The progress that the issue hasmade includes:1.It first concludes the research background, the cotemporary progress home and abroad and the significance of the research, on the base of which, it introduces the definition and features of the pervasive computing as well as the key problems of systematic software.2. After a comprehensive investigation of some most noted systems in the fields of pervasive computing such as AYRA, Centaurus, JINI, UIC, GAIS, 2K etc. the issue makes a total research of the pervasive computing and analyzes some associated fields like integrated operating systems, components technology, and middle ware technology.3. It presents the functions that a middle ware should acquire, on the demand of the pervasive computing, meanwhile it designs the main frame of the middle ware for pervasive computing, of which it makes a analysis about the main functions of the systematic frame, inner mechanisms, working principles and working flows. The frame includes 3 layers: dynamic binding layer, service detecting layer and context sensing layer, and analyzes the inner constructions and functions of the three layers deeply and detailed, at the same time it defines the interfaces of the three layers, and finally it basically can meet the needs of pervasive computing.4. It analyzes the performances of the frame constructions.