Abstract. Publish/subscribe (pub/sub) is considered a valuable middleware architecture that proliferates loose coupling and leverages reconfigurability and evolution. Up to now, existing pub/sub middleware was optimized for static systems where users as well as the underlying system structure were rather fixed. We study the question whether existing pub/sub middleware can be extended to support mobile and location-dependent applications. We first analyze the requirements of such applications and distinguish two orthogonal forms of mobility: the system-centric physical mobility and an application-centric logical mobility (where users are aware that they are changing location). We introduce location-dependent subscriptions as a suitable means to exploit the power of the event-based paradigm in mobile applications. Briefly spoken, location-dependency refines a subscription to accept only events related to a mobile user's current location. Implementations for both forms of mobility are presented within the content-based pub/sub middleware Rebeca, drawing from its refined routing capabilities (namely, covering and merging).

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Publish/subscribe systems are successfully used to decouple distributed applications. However, their efficiency is closely tied to the topology of the underlying network, the design of which has been neglected. Peer-to-peer network topologies can offer inherently bounded delivery depth, load sharing, and self-organisation. In this paper, we present a contentbased publish/subscribe system routed over a peer-to-peer topology graph. The implications of combining these approaches are explored and a particular implementation using elements from Rebeca and Chord is proven correct.

Publish/subscribe (pub/sub) proliferates loose coupling and is touted to facilitate mobility. The inherent loose coupling even allows existing applications to be transferred to mobile environments, if an appropriate infrastructure support is available. However, existing pub/sub middleware are mostly optimized for static systems where users as well as the underlying system structure is rather fixed. In this paper, we analyze the necessary steps to support mobile clients with publish/subscribe middleware. The REBECA content-based pub/sub service is extended to accommodate to physically mobile clients, offering a location transparent access to the middleware without degrading the previously guaranteed quality of service. The transparent access allows existing applications to be seamlessly transferred from a static to a mobile scenario without having to adapt client applications.

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