The convergence of heterogeneous internet-connected clients within iMASH
Thomas Phan, G. Zorpas, Rajive L. Bagrodia · IEEE Wireless Communications · 2002
The ubiquitous use of computers for daily productivity is a goal that presently remains unfulfilled. We believe that the convergence of desktop and mobile applications into a seamless computing experience will provide a strong motivation for future “anytime, anywhere computing.” In this article we describe this convergence as the capability to perform the handoff of application sessions across heterogeneous platforms using the network as a conduit as part of our Interactive Mobile Application Support for Heterogeneous Clients (iMASH) project. To that end, we have designed a software and hardware architecture to support heterogeneous client communication with application servers. Additionally, our architecture features a distributed middleware service tier to increase scalability and a content adaptation pipeline used to adapt data appropriately for heterogeneous clients. To demonstrate our concepts, we have implemented the architecture in order to support a real-world medical application that serves as a teaching tool for radiology clinicians.