1.Introduction

Mobile computing is one of the most important areas in today’s computing world. Anything mobile, having the computing capabilities is considered in this field of computer science.  It has grown in many areas of this dynamic business world by accomplishing more critical real time transactions within a matter of second, more often it gives the entire worlds’ operation on people’s finger-tips while they are on the move. The involvement of the mobile computing systems in coupling the entire world to an easily reachable area of palm, even when its agents are in the move, is tremendous and vital.

Wearable computer, Personal Digital Assistance (PDA), Enterprise Digital Assistance, Mobile Phone, Smartphone, Carputer and UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) are some of the categories of mobile computing devices. Even though the capabilities of these devices in isolation are some times confined to a very limited framework (e.g: Digital Calculator as a mobile device), they are very much important and wider in its strength of operations when they are being part of a network of information. Thus the connectivity technologies within those mobile devices has gain more attention of the specialized computer and electro-mechanical scientists in today’s computing paradigm.

Mobile computing applications have been spread in all over the world in a variety of fields with different interests. Therefore this broad area of computing has to be concerned in several different forms. Some of them are Mobile Ad-Hoc networks, Mobile Communications, Mobile Development, Mobile Software, Mobileers and Ubiquitous Computing. Exploring mobile computing is far wider than that in stationary computing systems due to the fact that it can be considered as a super set of stationary. Thus the dimensions of mobility have focused on those added elements that are outside of the stationary computing subset. These dimensions of mobility are as follows:

1. Location awareness,

2. Network connectivity quality of service (QOS),

3. Limited device capabilities (particularly storage and CPU),

4. Limited power supply,

5. Support for a wide variety of user interfaces,

6. Platform proliferation, and

7. Active transactions.

  Dimensions of mobility

 There are four pieces to the mobile problem: the mobile user, the mobile device, the mobile application, and the mobile network. Not only these but also the context can be expanded to focus on very specialized areas of computing such as mobile wireless sensor networks (WSN). With the plethora of wireless technologies, the mobile computing is often encompasses with the wireless connectivity while opening its gateway to the internet thus featuring “Always Connected”.

2. Evolution of Mobile Computing

     

  A timeline of mobile computing

One of the very first computing machines, the abacus, which was used as far back as 500 B.C., was, in effect, a mobile computing system because of its small size and portability. As technology progressed, the abacus evolved into the modern calculator. Most calculators today are made with an entire slew of mathematical functions while retaining their small size and portability.

A mobile computing system, as with any other type of computing system, can be connected to a network. Connectivity to the network, however, is not a prerequisite for being a mobile computing system. Although wired networks remain the predominant method of connecting computers together, they are somewhat cumbersome for connecting mobile computing devices. This is where the wireless communication systems come to the rescue.

Wireless Communication Systems

         Several benchmarks in wireless communication systems:    

• Wireless communication through line of sight: 1960 by military
• Communication satellites: 1970 commercialized
• Cellular telephony technologies became commercially : 1980

• Emergency Services
• Stock Information Collation/Control
• Credit card verification
  
• Taxi/Truck Dispatch
• Elecronoc mail/pagging
  
• Telephony service
• Enterprise Relationship Management

 With the rapid technological advancements in Artificial Intelligence, Integrated Circuitry and increases in Computer Processor speeds, the future of mobile computing looks increasingly exciting. Use of Artificial Intelligence may allow mobile units to be the ultimate in personal secretaries, which can receive emails and paging messages, understand what they are about, and change the individuals’ personal schedule according to the message. This can then be checked by the individual to plan his/her day.

 This scary concept of a world full of inanimate zombies sitting, locked to their mobile stations, accessing every sphere of their lives via the computer screen becomes ever more real as technology, especially in the field of mobile data communications, rapidly improves and, as shown below, trends are very much towards ubiquitous or mobile computing.

 

      Mobile Computing Evolution