Hybrid Application Support for Mobile Information Systems

Abstract

Abstract:The wide-spread presence of wireless networks and the availability of mobile devices has enabled the development of mobile applications that take us a step closer to accomplishing Weiser's vision of ubiquitous computing (Weiser, 1991). Unfortunately however, network connectivity is still not given anywhere and at any time. To increase the benefit of mobile applications, the next logical step is to provide support for an offline modethat allows to continuously work with an application, even when the device is not connected to a network. In this paper typical problems of replicating data are explained, possible solutions are discussed and two architectural patterns that could be used to implement hybrid support are illustrated.