Mobile Computing Systems Research: Past, Present, and Future Challenges

Speaker: Prof. C-K. Toh

Abstract:

Advances in computer technology, communications, and networks have gradually cultivated new computing platforms and paradigms. Debates on the arrival of the mobile computing age are still ongoing throughout the world, with some pondering its impact and pervasiveness. While operating systems (OSs) and microprocessor systems are traditionally viewed to be crucial in computing, networking is currently viewed as an indispensable part of computing. For SUN microsystems, the network is the computer! This talk shall first introduce the audience to the meaning of mobile computing and systems. It shall present past research work related to mobile computing, such as disconnected file systems, teleporting, and support for protocol transparency. With the understanding on what had motivated past research, I then discuss present work. Currently, research in this field is focused on human computer interface (HCI) for mobile computing, location/context/connectivity-aware systems, mobile agents/code, and protocol support for mobile systems. In the past, we created "objects" in the software sense for programmability. Very soon, we are going to give "life" to physical objects. Our computing approach will shift from the-box (i.e., the computer) into more interactions with physical and mobile objects present in the environment surrounding us. I shall conclude my talk with my visions of potential follow-up, new and "hard" research issues for mobile computing systems. Two such issues include addressing "neigbor-aware" mobile collaborative computing and questioning the limits of our current client-server paradigm.

Speaker:

Prof. C-K. Toh
Born in 1965, C-K Toh was educated at the EEE department, University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology and the Computer Laboratory, Cambridge University, England, in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His cambridge Ph.D. was focused on 'Protocol Aspects of Mobile Radio Networks'. He has performed pioneering research work on Wireless ATM (since 1993) and Wireless Ad Hoc Networks (since 1994). As of 1998, he joined Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, directing the Mobile Multimedia and Networking Laboratory. In May 2000, he was named GeorgiaTech Teaching Fellow. He is also founder and director of the Ad Hoc Wireless Networking and Computing Consortium.

Address:

Prof. C-K. Toh
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering
777 Atlantic Drive
Atlanta, Georgia GA 30332-0250
USA


Tel.
Fax

e-mail:cktoh@ece.gatech.edu
WWW: http://www.ece.gatech.edu/~cktoh