Context Life Cycle Management Scheme in Ubiquitous Computing Environments

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a context life cycle management scheme for consistent service provision in ubiquitous computing environments. We take the different temporal characteristics of contexts into account for managing contexts. We use the ontology- based context modeling and reasoning mechanism to utilize the high-level inference capability that enables a context management system to derive a user's intention in an effective manner. Existing context management scheme, however, does not consider the temporal characteristics of contexts that represent user's intention. Therefore, it causes the context-aware service for a user to be frequently fluctuated between running and interrupted state. This phenomenon not only causes a significant overhead in the overall context management system, but also degrades user's satisfaction. To handle this problem, we apply a new life cycle scheme into our context management system. As a result, we can provide a consistent service for a user and the system does not become much affected by frequent changes of environmental contexts.