mFrame: An Application Framework for Mobile Resource-constrained Computing Environments

Abstract

The component and architectural design reuse value of application frameworks enables higher productivity, faster turn-around time, and reduced cost when compared with the traditional development approaches. Because of the constrained nature of mobile devices, the application frameworks for such a computing environment have to provide a simple and lightweight implementation while still maintaining their flexibility and reusability value. This paper presents mobile Framework (mFrame) application framework that can be used for deploying software applications to compact mobile devices such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), global positioning systems (GPS) etc. It introduces a queuing and service layer architecture that provides simple data exchange mechanism between the presentation components and local and remote business services. Compact mobile devices using this architecture will be able to handle network disconnections, because the requests will be saved; and information will be exchanged with the remote services upon reconnection.