Mobile Computing Hardware & Software Components

Mobile Computing Hardware & Software Components  

The following components comprise a complete end-to-end solution for mobile computing applications:

Hardware:

. Mobile computing device - be it, a notebook, hand-held computer, pen computer, PDA, PalmOS        compatible PDA, Symbian EPOC handheld device, Windows CE/Pocket PC device,  or a modern    smart phone with Wireless Internet connectivity
.A suitably-configured wireline or wireless WAN modem, wireless LAN adapter, or a flash card    either as a distinctly separate accessory or embedded on the device - as is the trend now.
.A Web Server with wireless support, WAP gateway, a Communications Server and/or MCSS  (Mobile communications server switch)  or a wireless gateway embedded in wireless carrier's  network - this server provides communications functionality to allow the handheld device to    communicate with the Internet or Intranet infrastructure.
.An application or database server (the hardware piece) with application logic and business    application database - tier 2 server
.Optionally, a large enterprise application server (tier3) in the form of a Unix super server, IBM'ss  AS/400 server or IBM's OS/390 mainframe. .


Software:

1.Mobile client OS-type software that resides in the mobile device - it may be Windows/2000/NT,  Palm OS, Win CE (or Pocket PC), EPOCH, a specialized  OS like Blackberry, or a Web browser
2.Mobile application user interface with application logic in a handheld PDA, smartphone, Palm or  a Wintel notebook. In the Internet world, it is often under the control of a browser or microbrowser. 
3.Application server and/or database server software
4.Back-end legacy application software on large Unix servers (from vendors such as Sun, IBM, and  HP), IBM AS/400,or IBM S/390 mainframes
5.Application middleware (a piece of software that communicates with backend legacy systems and  web-based application servers). IBM's WebSphere, BEA's WebLogic or Oracle's 9i are typical  examples in this category. 
6.Wireless middleware that links multiple wireless networks to application servers
 Data synchronization software that synchronizes data in the mobile device with the network server or  the backend server
7.Mobile Device management software like XcelleNet's Afaria, Synchrologic Mobile suite or Mobile  Automation's MA2000.
8.Finally, the most useful software - end user application like messaging, sales force automation,   public query, data collection, etc.