Addressing context dependency using profile context in overlay networks

By utilizing various sorts of contextual data acquired from the users' devices, advance context-aware services and applications can be developed. But the current context management systems are based on server-client approach which hinders their widespread adoption in an ad-hoc network. In addition, performance issues introduced because of context dependency in a ubiquitous environment still need to be addressed. This paper presents the idea of profile context to address the problem of context dependency, and also proposes an open framework for context acquisition, management and distribution in a ubiquitous environment. Assembling together the context information and context updates from various sources, support for context-aware decisions can be implemented efficiently in a mobile environment by solving the problem of context dependency using profile context.