Mobile workers: access to information on the move

As the development of ´pen computing´ continues, more and more of today´s computers are likely gradually to move away from people´s desktops and into their pockets. The development of personal digital assistants (PDAs) has initiated this move. As these devices move into people´s pockets, they need the ability to access information on the move. This article describes a generic view of a client server mobile computing architecture. It also sheds some light on the basic network topologies that have been considered previously for such systems. The scenario used is a hospital ward. Each doctor is equipped with a PDA and each ward or a group of wards with a server providing patient records. As a doctor visits a patient in a ward, the patient´s record is accessed from the server onto the PDA. The doctor updates the record and sends the update back to the server.