Nomadicity : Anytime , anywhere in a disconnectedworld

Nomadic computing and communications is upon us. We are all nomads, but we lack the systems support to assist us in our various forms ofmobility. In this paper, we discuss the vision of nomadicity, its technical challenges, and approaches to the resolution of these challenges. One of the key characteristics of this paradigm shift in the waywe deal with the information is that we face dramatic and sudden changes in connectivity and latency. Our systems must be ``nomadically-enabled'' in that mechanisms must be developed that deal with such changes in a natural and transparent fashion. Currently, this is not the case in that our systems typically treat such changes as exceptions or failures; this is unacceptable. Moreover, the industry is producing ``piece parts'' that are populating our desktops, briefcases and belt-hooks, but that do not interoperate with each other, in general.We require innovative and systemwide solutions to overcome these problems. Such are the issues we address in this paper.