Bridging Context Management Systems in the ad hoc and mobile environments

The pervasive computing world in which the context-aware applications are aimed at is constituted of multiple network environments, e.g. ad hoc, mobile and fixed. There exist specialized Context Management Systems (CMSs) addressing context management needs of every network environment and the existence of a single CMS catering all the network environments does not seem to be plausible. Placing CMS bridges between different types of CMS is a practical approach for exchanging context information in the multiple network environments. Herewith, we focus on a bridge named as Context Discovery Adapter (CDA) which bridges two CMSs namely Mobile Service Platform (targeted towards the mobile network environment) and Ahoy (designed for the ad-hoc network environment), with greatly different properties. CDA enables context discovery and exchange across MSP and Ahoy by means of a mobile device which is capable of participating in both of the CMSs and specialized CDA broker service. The successful working prototype of CDA offers possibility for richer pervasive context-aware applications and a platform for further research.