Networking for Pervasive Computing

Abstract : Information technology is undergoing a paradigm shift from desktop computing, where isolated workstations connect to shared servers across a network, to pervasive computing, where myriad portable, embedded, and networked information appliances continuously reconfigure themselves individually and collectively to support the information requirements of mobile workers and work teams. This shift will not occur overnight, nor will it be achieved without solving a range of new technical and social problems. Still, this inexorable change should yield many economic opportunities for the global information technology industry, and for the increasing swath of businesses that depend on information. The potential value of pervasive computing motivated the NIST Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) to establish a five-year program of research to help the information technology industry identify and solve some looming technical roadblocks that seemed likely to slow development and acceptance of the new paradigm. The ITL Pervasive Computing program addressed three general areas: human-computer interaction, programming models, and networking. This special publication provides a compendium of technical papers published by NIST researchers who investigated networking for pervasive computing.