A policy based context-aware agent framework to support users mobility

Recent advances in portable computing devices and wireless technology make it possible to provide seamless and pervasive services for mobile users. As users move from one location to another, there is a greater need to automatically provide an office-like environment that normally has to be configured and setup on an individual basis by each user at each visited location. Due to occasional disconnections, device capabilities and network heterogeneity, mobility places a considerable burden on mobile applications. On the other hand, it receives little assistance from existing infrastructure and Internet protocols. The paper describes a set of policy-based agents composing a framework that assists services and applications in dealing with mobility challenges and capable of providing a policy-based context-aware mobile working environment. We propose an approach that uses policies at different levels, where contextual information characterizing the mobile user´s environment is also translated to a set of context policies.