uBeeMe - A platform to enable mobile collaborative applications

The vision of ubiquitous communication is driven by increasing user mobility and the need to collaborate. Mobile collaborative applications, such as mobile audio/video conferences, collaborative writing, social networks, and mobile gaming, are already important parts of human interaction. In this paper, we present the uBeeMe platform that supports the development of cooperative applications for ubiquitous and mobile scenarios. It provides reusable basis components to relieve the application developer in solving recurring problems and to enable him/her to focus on the real problem. Based on a possible collaborative application scenario on ground exploration we identify components which should be contained in such a platform. Thereafter, we give an overview of the platform structure and implementation and describe some its main components in more detail. These are mobile group communication, localization support, and mobility management. Keywords—Mobile Collaboration, Collaborative Applications, Mobile Group Communication, User-Localization, XMPP, Handover, Mobility Management