Functional and architectural adaptation in pervasive computing environments

Service-oriented computing paradigm encourages the use of dynamic binding of application requirements to the resources needed to fulfill application tasks. Especially in pervasive computing that is characterized by disconnected operation and mobility, the process of using service specifications and dynamic binding becomes critical. For this, adaptation techniques that provide for seamless service composition are needed for user task execution. In this paper we present our approach to enable two kinds of adaptations: functional (due to changes in user requirements) and architectural (due to changes in nonfunctional requirements) in pervasive computing systems. The key features of our approach are to model services as workflows, service handoffs as points of variability, and context detailing for dynamic service provisioning.