Existing Alternative for Pushing Content to Mobile Devices –

an Analysis and an Implementation

Diplomityöseminaari 7.6.2005

Marcus Mattila 49836w

Contents & agenda1. Background2. Problem statement3. Method4. Related concepts5. Demonstrator application6. Results and conclusions7. Future research items

supervisor: prof. Heikki Hämmäinen work conducted at R&D project for Sysopen

Digia Plc.

Background Mobile push services are a potential added revenue in future

3G and 4G networks. Falling prices and high cellphone penetration calls for new services Combining push-enabling technologies with context-awareness

enables proactive, customized and value-adding services to be created

Both B2B and B2C markets can be targeted: travel services, legacy operative systems, infotainment applications...

There exists alternatives to automatically identify a mobile device and sent out a push message. Technologies include WAP Push, Wi-Fi, SMS/MMS, Bluetooth, MIDP 2.0 PushRegistry, SIP. A comprehensive research was needed in order to choose and implement a suitable technology for SysOpen Digia’s needs.

Related concepts to be taken into account were context-awareness, multi-channel user interfaces and task-based modelling of the human-computer interface.

Problem statement The thesis answers the following

questions: What possibilities are there to develop an

application where content is automatically pushed to the end users’ devices?

What are the pro’s and con’s of various push-enabling technologies?

What challenges are there in integrating a mobile push enabling technology into an enterprise-wide application?

How can context information be utilized when pushing content to end users’ devices?

Method

First part: literature study Second part: constructive work

resulting in technical prototype using the technologies selected in the first part

Related concepts 1/2

Related concepts 2/2:SysOpen OpenChannel

SysOpen OpenChannel is a J2EE-based framework for developing multi-channel and context-aware applications that enhance the mobile user experience with timely and personalised services.

OpenChannel aims to solve the problem where ever-increasing amount of devices and device-specific requirements need to be managed in a usable and reusable way.

Push functionality needed to be integrated into SysOpen OpenChannel => Thesis contribution

left: PDA users have a permanent navigation structureright: phone users need to navigate to another page for accessing it.

Demonstrator application 1/2 Push message received in Nokia Communicator:

After opening the link, device’s web browser opens:

Front page of demonstrator application

Demonstrator application 2/2

Results Location-based push application implemented

using WAP Push Challenges were related to Jboss 3.2 classloading

mechanism, integration was a fairly straight-forward task. Openwave’s (www.openwave.com) Java API was used (Openwave WAP Push Library).

Acquired know-how in utilizing context information (device, user, physical, time, process) efficiently

Acquired an understanding of pro’s and con’s in alternative ways for pushing content to mobile devices

Conclusions We identified three main architectural solutions for

enabling mobile push applications: WAP Push, SIP, MIDP 2.0 PushRegistry

A context-awareness approach where all context information is retrievable from one logical entity is preferable. Accessors to context information from both the frontend and the backend of the system is preferable.

WAP Push is a good solution when heterogenous mix of devices. SIP is prefereable in a true IP-based environment when SIP support comes to mobile devices (Nokia Series60 3rd edition). MIDP 2.0 an option when thick client –approach necessary and possible to install the client easily on mobile devices

SMS/MMS not a bad ”backup”

Future research items Integrating SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)

into SysOpen OpenChannel –framework Architectural analysis What is needed to enable push functionality

Test SIP functionality in mobile devices Questions arise:

Will IPv6 allow for pushing content based on IP numbers?

Privacy, security, presence issues. Especially B2C market is challenging.

Thick client/thin client approach in mobile devices