Distributed Session Management, Session Mobility and Transfer in UbiCollab

Abstract

This thesis has been carried out as a contribution to the UbiCollab-project. UbiCollab is a service-oriented platform that envisions an arena for ubiquitous collaboration where social interactions may happen both natural and unconstrained of situation and location. Mobility is an inherent aspect of this goal. Accommodating a user's needs in these situations will require that their applications are able to adapt to the dynamic environment and also be able to readjust themselves due to the mobility of users - providing the users with a sense of continuum. A previous study investigated into the dimensions and management aspects of a session concept in the context of UbiCollab, capturing important aspects of the challenges imposed. This investigative study established sessions having varying lifespan that are able to follow the users and adapt to the resources found in their surroundings in order to accommodate higher-level user goals. This thesis pursues the concepts and challenges that were identified in this project, and as such further investigate into how UbiCollab can be able to support user mobility through sessions in ubiquitous environments. In this regard, an engineering approach is chosen with the main focus on designing and prototyping of a session management infrastructure. The thesis presents an architectural description and strategy for session management for UbiCollab, based on the challenges and characteristics that has been identified. A prototype implementation of the proposed architecture is also provided, including documentation of design and proposals for APIs. In addition a set of services to evaluate the flexibility and functionality of the architecture and concept is provided, especially with respect to the mobile nature of users. Mobility is an inherent aspect of this goal. Accommodating a user's needs in these situations will require that their applications are able to adapt to the dynamic environment and also be able to readjust themselves due to the mobility of users - providing the users with a sense of continuum. A previous study investigated into the dimensions and management aspects of a session concept in the context of UbiCollab, capturing important aspects of the challenges imposed. This investigative study established sessions having varying lifespan that are able to follow the users and adapt to the resources found in their surroundings in order to accommodate higher-level user goals. This thesis pursues the concepts and challenges that were identified in this project, and as such further investigate into how UbiCollab can be able to support user mobility through sessions in ubiquitous environments. In this regard, an engineering approach is chosen with the main focus on designing and prototyping of a session management infrastructure. The thesis presents an architectural description and strategy for session management for UbiCollab, based on the challenges and characteristics that has been identified. A prototype implementation of the proposed architecture is also provided, including documentation of design and proposals for APIs. In addition a set of services to evaluate the flexibility and functionality of the architecture and concept, especially with respect to the mobile nature of users, is provided.