Implicit Middleware

This paper introduces an approach for abstracting access to functionality in Pervasive Computing systems where very different types of devices co-exist. Tiny, resource-poor 8-bit based wireless embedded sensor nodes use highly fragmented programming, with code distributed over possibly hundreds of nodes. More powerful devices as mobile, handled devices, laptops or even server use coarse-grained distribution. The Implicit Middleware approach provides a way to both unify and simplify middleware for Pervasive Computing systems, by means of transparently distributing functionality in the system and making them context aware. The approach ensures optimized run-time behavior and adaptation to the system landscape. We also present an implementation using the XMLVM representation for code generation, and an evaluation running on PCs, J2ME CLDC 1.0 compatible 32Bit sensor nodes and 8Bit-MCU based nodes with an optimized light-weight VM.