Reference Architecture and Framework

The goal of the MAIS system is to provide support for flexible and adaptive execution of applications in a distributed, multichannel, mobile information system. In such a system, a fundamental requirement is an ability to describe the continuously evolving execution environment and user characteristics. Service requests are therefore satisfied by considering both the request itself and its provisioning environment. The first part of this chapter presents the general architecture of the MAIS system. The MAIS architecture allows us to define a set of “pluggable” modules which can be composed to provide adaptivity at different levels in the MAIS system. The main architectural components are introduced in Sect. 2.2; more details of the components are provided in the rest of the book. The MAIS reference framework, illustrated in the second part of this chapter, provides the essential basis for all of the adaptive mechanisms that are illustrated in the book. The MAIS reference framework defines a common understanding of the elements of a mobile information system that are used to enable communication among the various modules of a MAIS system during information exchange and service provisioning. The reference framework is composed of a set of models: the functional model, the architectural model, and the context model. These are described in the second part of this chapter.