A framework for adapting the distribution of automatic application configuration

Numerous current research projects deal with the issue of automatic application configuration in pervasive computing scenarios. While completely distributed configuration is inevitable in infrastructure-less ad hoc scenarios, many realistic pervasive application scenarios are located in heterogeneous environments where additional computation power of resource-rich devices can be utilized. However, most of the current projects either focus solely on smart environments which rely on additional infrastructure devices, or they address ad hoc environments and treat all involved devices as equal. This leads to suboptimal results in case of present resource-rich devices, as their additional computation power is not exploited. In this paper, we present a framework that is based on clustering and allows the efficient and flexible support of automatic application configuration both in infrastructure-based and ad hoc environments. This is realized by a new concept called Virtual Container that enables the local emulation of remote devices' functionalities and resources. In our evaluation results, we prove that this concept considerably reduces configuration delays noticeable by the user.