Wireless Information Highways

Book excerpt: The field of wireless networks and mobile computing is an area of very active investigation. Though, the majority of the research and development, focuses on devising efficient communication protocols so as to provide a stable communication channel to allow the information flow freely among the mobile clients. Recently, the investigation turned its interest also to the problem of providing advanced data management functionalities to the clients. In order to support data-intensive applications over the wireless medium, several techniques have been proposed addressing issues like security, quality of service, service discovery, data dissemination, location management, location-based and transactional applications. Although much has been written, especially recently, in this rapidly growing field, no other book treats problems in wireless networks from a computer science perspective, although a number of books that follow the engineering approach exist. Wireless Information Highways provides and excellent introduction and balanced coverage of the most important topics related to the methodologies developed to support data management in asymmetric communication environments. This book is based on a number of self-contained chapters and provides an opportunity for practitioners and researchers to explore the connection between various computer science techniques and develop solutions to problems that arise in the rapidly emerging field of wireless networks.