Metadata management for ad-hoc infoware – a rescue and emergency use case for mobile ad-hoc scenarios

In this paper we present a multi-tier data dictionary approach to metadata management in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). Our work is part of the Ad-Hoc InfoWare project, aiming to find middleware solutions to information sharing in MANETs used in rescue and emergency scenarios. Such scenarios are characterised by highly dynamic and time critical issues, and pose new challenges to solutions for information sharing and integration. We present the rescue and emergency scenario, the results of the requirements analysis, and some use cases resulting from this analysis. We describe the design of a knowledge manager component and how it may provide solutions, the main focus being on metadata management and the use of global and local data dictionaries. We present the status of our work, including detailed design and ongoing implementation of a data dictionary manager.