Challenges of Mobile Computing

The need for "information anywhere anytime" has been a driving force for the increasing growth in Web and Internet technology, wireless communication, and portable computing devices. The field of mobile computing is the merger of these advances in computing and communication with the aim of providing seamless computing environment for mobile users. Increasingly, we are dependent on information that is available only by accessing a network. This dependency implies that users would need access to this information even while on the move. Hence, mobility is additional parameter that needs to be considered in the design of networks, network protocols and information services. Mobility implies that networks need to cope with moving users. During a single session, users may connect from different network attachment points or use different networks or even more than one network simultaneously. Mobile computing environments are characterized by severe resources constraints and frequent changes in operating conditions. Mobile computing is gaining wide acceptance due to the rapid enhancement in wireless communication technologies. This has led to an increase in the demand for mobile information access. Wireless communication faces more obstacles than wired communication because the surrounding environment interacts with the signal, blocking signal paths and introducing noise and echoes. As a result, wireless communication is characterized by lower bandwidths, higher error rates, and more frequent spurious disconnections. These factors can in turn increase communication latency resulting from retransmissions, retransmission time-out delays, error-control protocol processing, and short disconnections. Mobility can also cause wireless connections to be lost or degraded. Users may travel beyond the coverage of network transceivers or enter areas of high interference. Unlike typical wired networks, the number of devices in a network cell varies dynamically, and large conventions and public events, may overload network capacity. As the use and functionality of mobile device increase, IT organizations face several serious challenges in developing strategies for integrating and managing them, for maximizing their effectiveness.