Cooperative management of enterprise networks in a mobile environment

Abstract

A mobile computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) environment is a natural setting for the integrated management of enterprise networks. This allows the sharing of scarce management expertise. The infrastructure for such systems is likely to proliferate soon, thanks to the rapid growth in mobile data communication systems. But these systems have severe bandwidth restrictions and have limited battery power on mobile terminals. Therefore, many of the standard client-server applications are not suitable for a mobile environment. However, the mobile environment offers a potentially useful facility in terms of broadcasting that allows multiple experts to work together with out adding any significant overhead on the communication and computing infrastructure. This paper analyses the requirements for supporting CSCW management applications in a mobile environment.