MUMMY - The System

3. System Deployment

The architecture of the MUMMY system is a typical client / server approach.





The client side can be a normal desktop PC, a laptop or a PDA. For the PDA operating system should be Windows capable of running the .NET Compact Framework 1.0. At this stage of the project we have chosen to run the trials on a PDA (Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox running Pocket-PC 2003, 2nd Edition). The device is readily equipped with a camera for taking pictures and video. For networking there will be a need for a PCMCIA adapter for GPRS / UMTS or a connection via Bluetooth to a GPRS / UMTS mobile phone

The server side is composed of two portals, the personal (so called HomeBase) and the corporate. The HomeBase is a personal information space that is made available only to the owner through a single point of access (hence the label personal portal). It can be hosted by the user's PC that resides on corporate's premises. The concept is that since the user is away from the corporate his personal computer is idle an can be used by him through the MUMMY system. The corporate portal could be a server or a cluster of servers on which company's data reside.

The user will have to establish a connection to his HomeBase through which the connection to the corporate portal is provided. The operating system on the server should be java capable (currently java 1.4, further on maybe java 1.5).

The communication between the client and the server can be established using wireless connection technologies. Actually MUMMY does not interfere with how the physical connection is done. As long as there is a TCP/IP connection it will use it to connect to the Internet. Security has been taken under consideration. On each side (client/server) there will be installed the appropriate VPN software in order to protect user's data.

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