Implementation and evaluation of Wapplet framework

摘要

It is important for application programmers and users to easily control networked appliances and devices without the need to be aware of their locations. In particular, network transparent control is essential for the ubiquitous computing environment. This is because end-users accomplish their tasks by coordinating devices that they are wearing, such as wearable computers and cellular phones, with various networked appliances, such as display devices and loud speakers. This paper presents the Wapplet framework, a new application framework that addresses this issue for the ubiquitous computing environment. To show the efficiency of the proposed Wapplet framework, we have evaluated it in terms of processing time. Requirements of the Wapplet framework are as follows: (a) support for object-migration, (b) location transparent method of invocation, and (c) abstraction of device specifics. Object migration is necessary for the ubiquitous computing environment because it is impractical to preinstall all applications on networked appliances. Thus, applications should be composed of multiple mobile modules. Location transparent control mechanisms like RPC (Remote Procedure Call) help application programmers in coordinating networked appliances. The framework needs to provide device independent Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to networked appliances, which eliminates the need to change device control programs for every appliance.