Context-Based Network and Application Management on Seamless Networking Platform

A context-based adaptive communication system is introduced for use in heterogeneous networks. Context includes the user's presence, location, available network interfaces, network availability, network priority, communication status, terminal features, and installed applications. An experimental system was developed to clarify the feasibility of using context information to flexibly control networks and applications. The system operates on a seamless networking platform we developed for heterogeneous networks. By using contexts, the system can inform the caller and callee of applications they can access, which are available through the network before communication occurs. Changes in contexts can switch an on-going application to another during actual communication. These functions provide unprecedented styles of communication. A business scenario for a seamless networking provider is also presented. Dr. Morikawa has also been in charge of NICT's Mobile Networking Group. Masugi Inoue received his B.E. from Kyoto University in 1992 and his M.E. and D.E. from the University of Tokyo in 1994 and 1997, all in the field of Electrical Engineering. He is currently a senior researcher at the Yokosuka Radio Communications Research Center under the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan, and has been engaged in R&D on ultrahigh-speed WLANs and mobile networking. He joined the Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Japan, in 1997, which was reorganized as NICT in April 2004. He was a visiting researcher at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, New York in 2000. Khaled Mahmud received his B.Sc. (Eng.) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in Dhaka in 1991. He received his M.E. and Ph.D. in the same field from Shizuoka University in Japan, in 1997 and 2000, respectively. He was a research fellow at NICT, Japan, from 2000 to 2004. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at North South University, Bangladesh. His research interests include modulation-demodulation techniques, software radio, mobile communication systems, wireless Internet, and IP mobility technologies. Homare Murakami received his B.E. and M.E. in Electronic Engineering from Hokkaido University in 1997 and 1999. In 2004, he received the Young Investigators Award from IEICE. He is currently a researcher at NICT's Mobile Networking Group. He is also an industrial PhD student in Aalborg University since 2003. His interest areas are naming scheme, wireless TCP and new transport protocol, IP mobility, fast handover method, and location management. Mikio Hasegawa received his B. Eng, M. Eng., and Dr. Eng. in 1995, 1997, and 2000 from Science University of Tokyo. From 1997 to 2000, he was a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). He is currently a senior researcher in Mobile Networking Group, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and a technical advisor in ChaosWare Inc. His research interests include applications of chaotic dynamical theory, combinatorial optimization, mobile networks, and ubiquitous computing. Hiroyuki Morikawa received his B.E., M.E., and D.E. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1987, 1989, and 1992. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Frontier Informatics at the University of Tokyo and is in charge of NICT's Mobile Networking Group. His research interests are in the areas of computer networks, mobile computing/networks, ubiquitous computing, and network services. He serves as Editor of Transactions of the IEICE and has been on the technical program committees of IEEE/ACM conferences and workshops. He sits on numerous telecommunications advisory committees and frequently serves as a consultant to the government.