Abstract
Modern networks are extremely complex, varying both statically and dynamically. This complexity and dynamism are greatly increased when the network contains mobile elements. A number of researchers have proposed solutions to these problems based on dynamic adaptation to changing network conditions and application requirements. This paper summarizes the results of several such projects and extracts several important general lessons learned about adapting data flows over difficult network conditions. These lessons are then formulated into a conceptual framework that demonstrates how a few simple and powerful ideas can describe a wide variety of different software adaptation systems. This paper describes an Adaptation Framework in the context of the several successful adaptation systems and suggests how the framework can help researchers think about the problems of adaptivity in networks.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. Allman, C. Hayes, H. Kruse and S. Ostermann, TCP performance over satellite links, in: 5th Internat. Conf. on Telecommunications Systems (1997).
H. Balakrishnan, S. Seshan, E. Amir and R. Katz, Improving TCP/IP performance over wireless networks, in: Mobicom '95 (November 1995).
C. Brooks, M.S. Mazer, S. Meeks and J. Miller, Application-specific Proxy servers as HTTP stream transducers, in: Fourth Internat. World Wide Web Conf. (November 1995).
Y. Chawathe, S. Fink, S. McCanne and E.A. Brewer, A proxy architecture for reliable multicast in heterogeneous environments, in: Proc. IFIP Middleware 98, Lake District, UK (September 1998).
A. Fox, I. Goldberg, S.D. Gribble, D.C. Lee, A. Polito and E.A. Brewer, Experience with top gun wingman, a proxy-based graphical Web browser for the USR PalmPilot, in: Proc. of IFIP Middleware '98, Lake District, UK (September 1998).
A. Fox, S.D. Gribble, E.A. Brewer and E. Amir, Adapting to network and client variability via on-demand dynamic distillation, in: Proc. 7th Internat. Conf. on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS-VII), Cambridge, MA (October 1996).
A. Fox, S.D. Gribble, Y. Chawathe and E.A. Brewer, Adapting to network and client variation using active proxies: Lessons and perspectives, IEEE Personal Communications (August 1998).
A. Fox, S.D. Gribble, Y. Chawathe, E.A. Brewer and P. Gauthier, Cluster-based scalable network services, in: Proc. of the 16th Internat. Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP-16), St.-Malo, France (October 1997).
Z. Jiang and L. Kleinrock, An adaptive pre-fetching scheme, to appear in Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (1999).
J. Kistler and M. Satyanarayanan, Disconnected operation in the Coda file system, ACM Transactions on Computers 10(1) (February 1992).
P. Kumar and M. Satyanarayanan, Supporting application-specific resolution in an optimistically replicated file system, in: Proc. of the 4th Workshop on Workstation Operating Systems, Napa, CA (October 1993).
P. Kumar and M. Satyanarayanan, Flexible and safe resolution of file conflicts, in: Proc. of the 1995 Winter Usenix Conf. (January 1995).
M. Liljeberg, H. Helin, M. Kojo and K. Raatikainen, Enhanced services for World-Wide Web in mobile WAN environment, Technical Report C-1996-28, Computer Science Department, University of Helsinki (1996).
A. Mallet, J.D. Chung and J.M. Smith, Operating system support for protocol boosters, in: HIPPARCH Workshop (June 1997).
L. Mummert, M. Ebling and M. Satyanarayanan, Exploiting weak connectivity for mobile file access, in: Symposium on Operating System Principles (December 1995).
B. Noble, M. Satyanarayanan, D. Narayanan, J. Tilton, J. Flinn and K. Walker, Agile application-aware adaptation for mobility, in: Symposium on Operating System Principles (November 1997).
P. Reiher, J. Heidemann, D. Ratner, G. Skinner and G. Popek, Resolving file conflicts in the Ficus file system, in: Proc. of the 1994 Summer Usenix Conf. (June 1994).
Ricochet wireless modem service, Metricom Inc. http://www. ricochet.net.
M. Satyanarayanan, J. Kistler, P. Kumar, M. Okasaki, E. Siegel and D. Steere, Coda: A highly available file system for a distributed workstation environment, IEEE Transactions on Computers 39(4) (April 1990).
M. Stemm and R.H. Katz, Vertical handoffs in wireless overlay networks, ACM Mobile Networking (MONET), Special Issue on Mobile Networking in the Internet (1997).
P. Sudame and B.R. Badrinath, Transformer tunnels: A framework for providing route-specific adaptations, in: Usenix Annual Technical Conf. (June 1998).
D. Tennenhouse and D. Wetherall, Towards an active network architecture, Computer Communications Review 26(2) (April 1996).
B. Tung and L. Kleinrock, Using finite state automata to produce self-optimization and self control, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems 7(4) (April 1996).
Wireless applications Forum home page and standards documents, http://www.wapforum.org.
M. Yarvis, P. Reiher and G. Popek, Conductor: A framework for distributed adaptation, in: Proc. 7th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems (HotOS-VII) (March 1999).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Badrinath, B., Fox, A., Kleinrock, L. et al. A conceptual framework for network and client adaptation. Mobile Networks and Applications 5, 221–231 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019168830964
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019168830964