Mobile Access Workshop position paper from IBM

Dave Bevis of IBM UK 03/04/98

Mobile Computing and IBM

More and more businesses are turning to mobile solutions to solve fundamental business problems. The primary requirement for the mobile user is to make them as productive on the road as in the office by providing access to key data and productivity applications via networking as well as facilitate disconnected operations when a connection is not possible or desired. The Internet and its standards now make it possible to reach customers, partners, or employees—virtually anywhere on Earth. There is a new breed of mobile applications and devices emerging that takes advantage of the new paradigm.

The following diagram shows many of the areas of computing that are required to provide solutions for mobile users.

IBM has been active over the past 10 years in the provision of mobile solutions, and has developed significant skills and a wide range of products in almost every layer of this diagram.

PERVASIVE COMPUTING

Most recently IBM has chosen to define the computing space 'below' the laptop PC as a significant area of business. For this paper we shall call this 'Pervasive Computing'.

Pervasive Computing is one of the 2 major initiatives Lou Gerstner (IBM's CEO) has focused on in 1998 and was a high focus item for the speech he gave at CEBIT in Hanover Germany.

Pervasive Computing will encompass many new devices and technologies, the size of this market is very large in its own right. It also matters to IBM as it has the ability to leverage

many of the companies assets within the other layers of the diagram, where we have significant investment and skill.

Pervasive Computing devices will be the source of many new transactions. Capturing these new transactions will fuel significant growth.

Pervasive Computing solutions will extend e-business to individuals.

We will seek to extend the to this class of user the services available to the desktop and higher users.

Mobility is key to enabling these pervasive computing technologies, and mobile communications in particular will be a highly visible requirement.

To this end IBM is today involved in many activities world-wide.

Challenges.

The biggest problem facing mobile users today is the difficulty in getting data or application access remotely. Low bandwidth connections, tricky communications configurations and connection-dependent applications are some of the key problems facing mobile users when they try to access remote data. Our mobile strategy addresses the requirement to access the data inside their corporate Intranet and via the Internet as well as provide solutions for each of the problem areas (bandwidth, configuration and disconnected use). Below is a summary of the classes of data or application types that may be required by the mobile user.

PC files that can reside on the mobile device, on a server, or on the user's desktop in the office. They can be shared or private.
Relational database data or reports
Mainframe datastreams
Group ware - mail, calendar, address book, to-do lists, Lotus Notes
Fax
Internet data - Web browsing
System's Management data such as software distribution
Transactions and emerging electronic commerce over the Web are defined by a sequence of steps which may cross business entity boundaries with varying levels of security and controlled by dynamic workflow (synchronous or asynchronous) with a variety of object types. For example, a consumer purchasing something on the Internet may include information on the consumer, credit card information, merchant, order information, financial institution, authorisation, receipt and confirmation.
Mobile devices are often resource poor when compared with their desktop counterparts. It is not always possible to run an application's standard client-side code. Furthermore, there is a wide disparity of capabilities among mobile devices -- all the way from laptops down to minimal-function PDAs and down to imbedded devices.
The general user requirements (superset, not on each device) include access to existing data (databases, files and applications, group ware functions such as Mail, calendar, short messaging, paging, fax, telephony, data or voice or video conferencing, Internet / Intranet / extranet (Virtual Private Network) access. Communications access is wired or wireless, or LAN with provisions for data synchronisation, time sensitive transmissions, selectivity, automation and control. Delivery of software and support for "push" technologies such as publish/subscribe functions are useful in future applications

IBM is involved in developing technologies to address these problems and requirements in which ever layer of the solution they are found. We have interest in what others are doing in this space, especially in the area of standards. IBM wishes to promote the use of open standards where ever appropriate. The network Computing Framework (NCF) specifies a wide set of industry standards and includes mobile computing as a key component. Within mobile computing, the MNCRS standards work has occurred. It includes many of the NCF standards and adds mobility to the NCRP (Network Computer Reference Profile). To summarise, NCF includes the Mobile Computing framework which includes the MNCRS for mobile Java devices. Work is also ongoing to co-ordinate related activities between the NCRP group and the MNCRS group.

Mobile Java Directions and MNCRS Summary

With the success of network computing, Java, and recent technology advances, the Mobile Network Computing Reference Specification has emerged. Mobile network computing components include devices (hand held PCs, smart phones, low-end or cost-reduced laptops, personal information managers), applications (word processors, spreadsheets and graphics) and services (telephony, e-mail, paging, video/data conferencing, and Internet / Intranet access). These components target the needs of the mobile professional, the worker in industry specific segments as well as consumer environments. The diversity of mobile computing components require a common language for application development and a set of industry standard protocols for communications. By building on Java and extending the network computing platform, we can leverage the advantages of application portability, security, availability, performance, total cost of ownership and provide a wide range of new network devices. In addition to its portability advantage, Java applet and servlets provide a simple model for implementing agents and proxies, provide robust security and automatic software distribution, and have rich networking APIs and a convenient event model for implementing mobile applications. The Mobile Network Computer is a Java based set of mobile devices that build off the advantages of network computing and build in mobility via new Java APIs rather than treating it as an afterthought. The Mobile Network Computer initiative was announced June 23, 1997. Press release, initial specifications and white paper can by found at http://www.internet.ibm.com/computers/networkstation/os/press.html. It is sponsored and endorsed by a wide set of international industry leaders. The initial draft provides the majority or required and recommended standards for mobile connectivity where they exist. It is a blend of NCF and mobility. In other areas, they are defined in terms of requirements. Future revisions may address these other areas where standards do not exist such as data synchronisation, mobile communications, self configuration and Java Smartphones by providing updates to protocols, APIs or framework definitions.

Current Position and Interest Statement.

Given the importance of Pervasive Computing to IBM and Mobile computing and communications it is clear that we have interests in the W3C's activities is respect to the HDML proposals and other web protocols being suggested such as the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).
Also it appears that the work being done on XSL (eXtensible Style Language) to add voice navigation may fit in well with the pervasive computing scope, but may require some assistance with respect to making this effective for the mobile worker.
Finally our work on security, Java and smart card technologies could also be helpful for the standards work being undertaken when considered for the mobile space.
Dave Bevis dave_bevis@uk.ibm.com