Mobile Computing

Recent developments in portable devices and highbandwidth, ubiquitous wireless networks has made mobile computing a reality. Inthis course we consider current research into the design and implementation of systems and applications software for use in mobile environments.

Course Objectives

At the end of the course students will have anappreciation of the challenges of designing for mobile environments, anunderstanding of the key technologies involved and a working knowledge of the state of the art in mobile computing research. The students would gain an insight into future developments in the field of mobile computing. This knowledge could be transferred to any company interested in developments in this area.

Syllabus

The course covers a range of topics including:

• network and transport protocols for wireless networks, including mobile IP and variants of TCP.
• distributed systems platforms for mobile computing, including proxy based architectures and service discovery and interaction platforms.
• a computer science perspective on wireless networks including characteristics of local and wide area technologies such as Bluetooth, 802.11 and GSM.
• file systems support for mobile computing.
• mobile middleware
• privacy in mobile systems
• Novel mobile interaction techniques and applications

The course will be taught using a combination of traditional lectures and workshop style sessions. There is a significant reading component to the course.

Assessment

The module is assessed by 50% exam and 50% coursework. The coursework component is split 30% on an individual project and 20% on class participation.

Recommended Reading

The course is structured around selected papers taken from contemporary mobile computing research. We recommend buying the following text to accompany the course:

• Mobile Communications Publisher: Addison Wesley. October 1999, Paperback 400 pages ISBN: 0201398362.

Dates and Details

Lecturers: Prof Nigel Davies and Prof Hans Gellersen