The user-context module: A new perspective on future internet design

Abstract

Advances in ubiquitous sensing and computing technologies, combined with the well developed theories in cognitive science, present major opportunities for the future Internet. We argue that the future Internet should be a user-centric and context-aware communication network, which goes far beyond today's host-centric and store-forward Internet. In this article we propose to explicitly introduce the end-user's context information into the future Internet framework. We, therefore, define a new functional module called the User-Context Module, and describe its architecture and key design principles. We also present two User-Context Module applications to aid gaining an understanding of its operation and impacts. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.