Mobile Agents in Wireless LAN and Cellular Data Networks

Abstract

Advancing technology in wireless communication offers users anytime, anywhere access to information and network resources without restricting them to the fixed network infrastructure. Mobile computing represents a shift in the distributed systems paradigm. The potential of decoupled and disconnected operation, location-dependent computation and communication and powerful portable computing devices gives rise to opportunities for new patterns of distributed computation that require a revised view of distributed systems. Mobile environment brings different challenges to users and service providers when compared to fixed, wired networks. Mobility brings uncertainties, as well as opportunities to provide new services and supplementary information to users in the locations where they find themselves. A mobile user is one who, on occasion, disconnects from his/her home network to change location and then reconnects, possibly using a different access technology. A necessary feature of mobility management is the ability to continue to provide system and network services to mobile users seamlessly, regardless of their location and the form of their connection. In general, most application software, operating systems and network infrastructures are intended for more conventional environments and so the mobile user has great difficulty in exploiting the computational infrastructure as fully as he/she might. The Internet Roaming solution for corporate wireless data users integrates mobile networking across private wireless local area networks (WLANs), public WLANs and cellular data networks. In this study we have developed an infrastructure using mobile agent for integrating the Wireless LAN and cellular data called Internet Roaming System (IRS). It is implemented on PMADE mobile agent system developed at IIT Roorkee.