When System Boundaries Dissolve: Research Opportunities in Software Architectures for Ubiquitous Computing and Communication

Modern computing technology is creating a growing infrastructure for high performance, nearly ubiquitous computing and communication. This infrastructure extends the reach of computation and information beyond the traditional framework of a computer application running on a fixed set of machines. The architectures that suffice for such traditional software do not address the challenges of highly distributed, dynamically reconfigured software systems that depend on resources controlled by someone other than the developer. I will discuss the architectural challenges of this new setting, describe some promising approaches to handling those challenges, and suggest some research strategies for exploring and developing solutions.