As the decade closes and we look back over the technological advances made, mobile phones and the Internet stand out as two of the developments with the greatest potential. While the former provides connectivity at the local level, the latter provides connectivity at the global level. Ironically, the two technologies have not had much collaboration to this point. Voice traffic currently occupies most of the mobile phone user bandwidth, and few people use mobile phones to check their email or use the Internet.
With competition among manufacturers, mobile phones now include plenty of raw computing power (even compared to the latest PCs), and it’s fortunate that they do. With increasing costs of office space and the need to stay productive while traveling, mobile computing is becoming more a necessity than a luxury. Over the next decade, people will expect mobile phones to provide them with not only voice communication but also access to office data and messages while they are away from their desks.
As part of its pervasive computing initiative, IBM is combining mobile computing and the Internet to offer customers new ways of working away from the home or office. The plan also provides customers with opportunities to save money by using more efficient methods of scheduling appointments and collecting information while they are on the road.
The Problem
Although the mobile phone market is growing exponentially, a mobile phone is like a Swiss Army knife. Its first requirement is to fit in your pocket or purse, and its second requirement is to be as useful as possible. Because of limitations to human dexterity, visual acuity, and finger size, mobile phones cannot be ideal computer terminals until speech and voice recognition technology improves to allow voice operation exclusively. In the meantime, larger devices with larger screens and keyboards are available for mobile computing. You can classify these devices as full-function laptops, limited-function palmtops, or handheld palmtops without keyboards, and each type plays a part in pervasive computing.
You can use full-function laptops in and out of the office. Apart from considerations of connectivity, they function similarly in both situations. Traveling executives can take laptops on business trips and continue to process mail and access
company data while away from home. This convenience keeps them in touch with developments and allows them to communicate decisions back to their offices.
Although full-function laptops make most of the office portable, they are not convenient for professionals such as gas fitters to carry in their toolboxes. In such cases, you need a smaller, more rugged device that is easier to carry yet powerful enough to do the job, whether that job is capturing press conferences or recording deliveries. The former task probably requires a keyboard, but the latter may not. Depending on the job, factors such as battery life, storage capacity, display resolution, size, weight, and mechanical strength may all be important. Today, many personal digital assistants (PDAs) assume that the owner has a bigger computer to download data to them. However, this may not be the case for all users, and central administration is required.
The cost of many PDAs is relatively low, but maintenance and connection can be expensive, particularly with cellular radio network connection. Cellular phones, in contrast, offer an inexpensive, lightweight alternative to PDAs or laptops for situations in which you need to handle only a few messages.
The Complication
As users have varying requirements for computing power and data input speed, they also have varying needs for connectivity. Some may have LAN access, whereas most have access to a wired line or mobile phone.
However, not all users need access while actually out of the office. A surveyor, for example, may collect data offline while on site and upload it to a central database once back at the office or hotel. A traveling executive may log in twice a day to check for urgent email and messages.
In the “pager scenario,” when users need more immediate notice about changes in schedules or status, an unsolicited outbound message can inform them that something needs attention. This scenario has more complex requirements of connectivity because the user cannot anticipate the message arriving and therefore cannot take steps to facilitate a good connection.
In this situation, message queuing with assured delivery is the ideal solution. With assured delivery, the sender knows that the message is delivered but does not know exactly when. Even if the user is out of contact when the original message is sent, the system can retry until the message is delivered. This also applies to inbound messages.
You can send messages valid only for a certain time (such as road traffic problems) with an expiration time or a retry count; these options are the quality of service users have requested. You can also prioritize messages so you send the most important information first. Some users need immediate responses to questions about such things as stock levels or client details. In such cases, message queuing can still be the infrastructure for request and reply and benefits the programmer by hiding the complexity of the transport infrastructure.
A New Hope
For more than five years, IBM has had a suite of messaging products that support all major platforms, including the AS/400, OS/390, Advanced Interactive eXecutive (AIX), OS/2, Windows NT, Sun Solaris, and HP-UX. Although these products ensure the delivery needed to support mobile use, they are not designed to be used on lightweight devices or to use unreliable links. Consequently, IBM has recently announced its intention to extend MQSeries into the pervasive computing arena with a new offering that it calls MQSeries Everywhere.
MQSeries Everywhere fills the needs of the mobile users described above. It runs on lightweight devices such as PDAs, and, as part of its pervasive computing initiative, IBM is working with hardware and software vendors to bring the benefits of message queuing to mobile users. MQSeries Everywhere supports Java Virtual Machines (JVMs)
and their operating systems, such as Windows CE, EPOC, and Windows 95/NT. It also supports small devices, such as the Palm OS in C. MQSeries Everywhere enables devices such as PDAs to transfer information to and from back-end servers, including legacy enterprise systems. The product is expected to start at just 50K bytes and could be embedded in some devices. It also supports the C++ and C programming languages on larger operating systems and uses HTTP (overTCP/IP) protocols to allow messages to pass through firewalls.
A big attraction of MQSeries Everywhere is its ability to connect to other MQSeries servers via an inter-mediate gateway (running initially on Windows NT). These other MQSeries servers could include bridges to CICS, IMS, Lotus Notes, or SAP R/3. They could also run MQSeries Integrator to allow message transformation and routing.
MQSeries middleware already has the potential to be the infrastructure connecting small- and medium-sized businesses that use the AS/400 or similar platforms. MQSeries Everywhere just extends this potential to a whole new set of field workers and customers.
The Challenge
One of the biggest challenges of e-business is to make selected data from legacy systems available to customers and users. As illustrated in Figure 1, you can use MQSeries not only to communicate between legacy systems but also to connect these systems to remote users of MQSeries or users of Web browsers.
The most robust way to design a mobile application is to use MQSeries messages to connect all the way from the mobile device to the servers behind the firewall to back-end applications. In this way, the reliable delivery of MQSeries assures data integrity across the system and safely delivers work schedules and updates. MQSeries can provide direct access to CICS and IMS legacy applications without changing them and still maintains data integrity. In addition, MQSeries has trans-actional database access as well as triggering so you can invoke server applications on demand.
However, for certain types of interactive use, the MQSeries Internet Gateway provides a link to Web browsers on mobile devices and can connect them to MQSeries applications with access to legacy data. However, this method has its disadvantages: Users must have a good connection to the server for the duration of the interactive session, and the method may not be suitable for high-value or assured-delivery business transactions.
MQSeries Integrator
When remote users connect to legacy systems, particularly those of other companies, the format of the data that their local applications use probably does not match that used in the remote system. IBM’s MQSeries Integrator products simplify the complexity of connections between heterogeneous applications by establishing a hub through which messages can pass and through which you can perform operations on messages and intelligently apply rules (see Figure 2).
Operations on messages can include filtration, database interaction, redirection, or splitting. In addition, message formats can be self-defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML) or defined through an IBM-provided format repository or through third-party message dictionaries. Predefined templates enable MQSeries Integrator to exchange information with major packaged applications, and a publish/subscribe function is available.
MQSeries Integrator can process the data in messages from MQSeries Everywhere to allow the data’s transformation into formats understood by legacy applications or formats that other organizations use. You can then send orders to other businesses in a format that they can process directly.
The Possibilities
For existing business users, MQSeries Everywhere presents opportunities to extend into new markets and improve customer service. Four examples illustrate the possibilities.
MQSeries Everywhere could enable insurance agents and researchers to collect data with PDAs as they visit each client. If they wish, they could send data back to central databases while on site or wait until they get back to the office or get back home. When they contact the office, they would receive updates about visits that they still have to make. In addition, low-cost telephone connections and PDAs would minimize setup costs. A variation of this scenario has PDAs being lent to customers to let them record their own options (such as items to be insured) and provide them with up-to-date information on premiums.
With MQSeries Everywhere, executives on business trips could receive high- priority messages and reply to them by using laptop computers attached to mobile phones. In some situations, the mobile phone display alone could deliver these messages. Executives could also approve high-value business transactions that are part of a workflow scenario. The high integrity and security of MQSeries Everywhere means the safe delivery of business transactions, even when using a mobile phone. The MQSeries publish/subscribe function would automatically send details of sales results for local regions and selected accounts, and executives could change the number of accounts subscribed to at any time.
Visiting professionals, such as maintenance engineers and nurses, could receive details of new work as their shifts progress by using a PDA connected to a wireless network. They could record details of work completed, find out further details, or call for additional help as necessary. The assured delivery of MQSeries Everywhere means that important messages would never be lost. They could place orders for additional supplies directly through MQSeries Integrator connected to an electronic data interchange (EDI) network.
Finally, with MQSeries Everywhere, computers built into vehicles could give delivery drivers up-to-the minute information about changes to pickups and deliveries, and built-in barcode scanners could record the moment a delivery is made and update central records over cellular telephone links. MQSeries Everywhere would deliver the updated status to the central computer, from which MQSeries Integrator could update local databases and route a confirmation to the sender.
With all these scenarios, there is potential for lending or leasing equipment to customers for their own use. For example, a rental car could feature a computer that gives access to email and shows dynamically updated rental costs. You could offer travelers PDAs that show departure times and shopping opportunities during their trips, and investors could receive immediate notice about price changes so they could request immediate stock trading.
The Potential
IBM will begin shipping beta code for MQSeries Everywhere this year and will roll out the product along with other parts of its pervasive computing initiative. The company has already announced MQSeries support for the latest level (V5.1) of the clustering function for AS/400.
Using a separate gateway server, AS/400s can connect to mobile users even through firewalls. Lightweight pervasive devices need not be expensive; you can even connect them over wired telephone lines if necessary. You can gear system costs to the responsiveness required; a faster response typically requires more expensive networks.
Over the next decade, those businesses that can reach customers directly in their homes or while they are on the road will have a considerable advantage in the marketplace. Together, these MQSeries products allow business users to extend their operations into the mobile environment and facilitate additional opportunities for sales and customer service.
Client
Firewall Intranet
H
T T P
MQSeries Everywhere
OS/390
Websphere
MQe
Gateway
Figure 1: MQSeries Everywhere also serves as an e-business connector.
Source
Palm
Pilot
Sales rep places order via MQSeries Everywhere application
Mobile
Phone
Sales rep places order via Web browser
CICS/IMS-MQ Bridge
Inventory Database AS/400, AIX, OS/2, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, etc.
MQ
MQSeries TCP/IP Connection
Windows NT or 2000 MQ MQ
Data Warehouse
Publishing Client Applications
Fixed or
Mobile Subscribers
Input
Node Acceptors
Warehousing Node
Filter
Node
Rules Dynamic Subscription Engine
Output Node
Filter
Node
Source
Targets
Message Dictionary
Persistent State Datastore Security Subsystem
Queue Manager
Figure 2: These are the components of MQSeries Integrator 2.0.
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