Autonomous Context Data Dissemination in Heterogeneous and Dynamic Environments

The intelligent dissemination of context information to enable context-aware applications is a topic often discussed in current research. However, related approaches are not able to cope with the unknown and dynamically changing nature often found in ad-hoc peer-to-peer environments. In this paper, we propose a flexible means of gathering, interpreting, and providing context information in a distributed manner. For this purpose, we describe a request-driven model for the interaction of context providers and requesters. We incorporate a bio- inspired pheromone-based approach of intelligently storing and disseminating information based on the data really requested and needed. Semantic Web technology is utilized to obtain a loosely coupled interaction pattern and an adaptable representation of context information. Thus, desired information can be accessed by external applications and services in a flexible and transparent manner.