An adaptable software architecture based on mobile components in pervasive computing

Distributed applications operating in pervasive computing environment should have abilities to cope with the high heterogeneity and variability of this environment. In a high abstract level, the dynamic software architecture can be used to provide the flexibility and adaptation for the applications by modifying the structure of software, such as adding, removing, replacing components, in the execution time. Besides, mobile codes technologies have provided ability to move around for components. However, software architecture supporting component migration has not been deeply studied. In this paper, an adaptable software architecture for pervasive computing is introduced. We revisit software architecture, and describe its elements related to mobility, especially components and connectors, in formal forms. Due to the components’ correlation, the migration relationships between two components are proposed and discussed in detail. As an example, multiple notable design paradigms are expressed in a unified way by using our mobile component approach, which shows the effectiveness and generality of our model.