Agent-Oriented Middleware for Mobile eLearning Services S. Stoyanov 1♣ , V. Valkanova 5 Dept. of Computer Systems, Plovdiv University “Paisij Hilendarski”, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. stani@uni-plovdiv.bg; veselinaviva9@gmail.com I. Ganchev 2 , M. O’Droma 3 Telecommunications Research Centre, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland. Ivan.Ganchev@ul.ie; Mairtin.ODroma@ul.ie H. Zedan 4 Software Technology Research Laboratory, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. hussein.zedan@googlemail.com Abstract—An agent-oriented middleware supporting context- aware mobile eLearning services provision is presented. The middleware architecture developed for a distributed InfoStation-based network established within a University Campus is described in detail. A concept for the control and management of service sessions and communications scenarios is also presented. Keywords-InfoStations, middleware architecture, context- aware mLearning, JADE, OWL-S, AMS, ITL I. INTRODUCTION This paper presents an InfoStation-based system architecture operating across a University Campus and providing access to a variety of mobile eLearning (mLearning) services as well as a number of supplementary communications services [1-4]. It facilitates efficient mobile user access to services and resources via intelligent wireless access points (called InfoStations) deployed at key locations around a University Campus. The system architecture consists of three tiers (Fig. 1): • 1 st tier encompassing the user mobile devices (cell phones, laptops, PDAs), equipped with intelligent agents acting as Personal Assistants to users; • 2 nd tier consisting of InfoStations, facilitating the users’ mobile access to services through Bluetooth and/or WiFi wireless connections. Their role is to maintain connections with mobile devices, create and manage user sessions, provide interface to global services offered by the InfoStation Center, and host local services (the presence and use of local services allow reducing the workload of the InfoStation Center); • 3 rd tier – an InfoStation Center – the core of the overall architecture that is concerned with controlling the InfoStations, and with the overall updating and synchronization of information across the system. Figure 1. The 3-tier InfoStation-based system architecture. We have developed a set of mLearning service prototypes that use the resources distributed across this system architecture in an efficient manner. For instance, the user requests for local services are satisfied directly by the InfoStations without a need to access the InfoStation Center’s resources. The local services are used/shared only by the mobile devices currently in the range of a particular InfoStation. On the other hand, the user requests for global services would need to be redirected to the InfoStation Center in order to be fully satisfied. The global services are used/shared by all InfoStations. In some cases/scenarios a local service could be the initial and/or finishing phase of some global service provision. For instance, a typical action concluding a global service provision is to forward the final result to the mobile device that has requested it. Also, initially the execution of some service requests could be handled by one InfoStation and later completed by another due to the device mobility supported by the system, e.g. when during the service provision the user/device moves into the range (service area) of another InfoStation. A middleware software with specific functions has to be developed and used in this architecture to ensure sufficient flexibility, adaptability, and autonomy of the system architecture’s nodes. In addition, the autonomic software components must be able to communicate at a higher semantic level with regard to the context, the business-logic of the provided service, and the individual characteristics of users. For this reason, we have chosen an agent-oriented approach for the implementation of the required middleware. 3 rd tier: InfoStation Center and Master Service Content Repository) Cell Phone PDA Laptop 2 nd tier: InfoStations (with cached copies of recently used user/ service profiles, and local repository of cached service content) 1 st tier: Mobile Devices (with Intelligent Agents acting as Personal Assistants to users) 2009 33rd Annual IEEE International Computer Software and Applications Conference 0730-3157/09 $25.00 © 2009 IEEE DOI 10.1109/COMPSAC.2009.116 62