The Proxy-Based Mobile Grid Azade Khalaj, Hanan Lutfiyya, and Mark Perry Computer Science Department The University of Western Ontario, London ON N6A 3K7, Canada {akhalaj,hanan,markp}@csd.uwo.ca Abstract. The increase in the popularity of small digital mobile devices also implies an increased demand in applications. The limited computing capabilities on the mobile devices and the unreliability of wireless links are barriers to the smooth access of mobile devices to the Grid applica- tions and resources. In this paper a proxy-based approach is presented that is able to support various kinds of applications to be used by mobile devices by providing specific-purpose services on the proxy. The imple- mented prototype that includes some of the realized proxy services and the example client application for a mobile device show the viability of the proposed approach. Keywords: Mobile Grid, Grid Computing, Mobility, Proxy, Proxy-based Architecture. 1 Introduction In recent years we have seen a proliferation of mobile consumer electronic de- vices e.g., smartphones, PDAs and tablet PC. With this proliferation there is an increased demand for the following: (i) The ability to run resource-intense applications such as video playing or editing. However, the devices have limited compute power due to size and weight constraints. This suggests a need to offload computation from mobile devices to servers with sufficient computational power; (ii) Access to peripheral devices such as printers; (iii) Access to remote services that rely on information from multiple sources. For example, urban planners are proposing to allow city residents to provide information in real-time about spe- cific events e.g., car sensors may provide information about traffic patterns. In other words there is a desire to access through a mobile device a ”hardware and software infrastructure that provides dependable, consistent, pervasive and in- expensive access to high-end computational capabilities and peripheral devices” [24]. We will refer to this infrastructure as the Mobile Grid. The challenges in providing seamless and transparent access to the mobile grid include the following: (i) Most mobile devices have limited computing re- sources; (ii) Devices are mobile and often connect to the Grid through wireless connections which are not as reliable or have the same bandwidth as wired con- nections; (iii) Battery power is limited and this may cause frequent disconnection of mobile devices. Y. Cai et al. (Eds.): Mobilware 2010, LNICST 48, pp. 59–69, 2010. c  Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2010