Probe: a system for context collection, dissemination and processing

Abstract

The open, dynamic and uncertain internet platform requires software systems running on it should be able to probe the changes of their running environments and adapt themselves accordingly. The Internetware paradigm and the environment driven application model open a promising way to cope with these requirements. A uniform middleware for environmental context information handling is essential to achieve the environment driven application model. In this paper, we argue that mobile agent technology is competent for building such a middleware and propose the Probe system, implemented based on mobile agent technology, with respects to the environment driven application model. The Probe system provides a uniform, hierarchical, and dynamic configurable platform for environmental context information collection, dissemination and processing for Internetware applications.