May 2007 (vol. 8, no. 5), art. no.

0704-o5004
1541-4922 © 2007 IEEE
Published by the IEEE Computer Society

Education
Mobile Computing Systems Programming: A Graduate
Distributed Computing Course
Lars Kulik • University of Melbourne

Mobile devices are ubiquitous: they encompass portable audio and video players, digital cameras,
tablet PCs and PDAs, as well as cell phones and smart phones. A Sept. 2006 Cellular News story
(http://www.cellular-news.com/story/19223.php) estimated that there are more than 2.5 billion
mobile phones worldwide. Although the mobile systems market is large and the career opportunities
for students are excellent, relatively few universities offer mobile computing courses, much less teach
mobile systems programming. Because mobile networks are likely to drive computing for the
foreseeable future, the University of Melbourne Computer Science and Software Engineering
Department created a Master of Engineering in Distributed Computing degree program.1 The MEDC
program educates graduate students in rapidly evolving key areas such as distributed computing,
mobile computing, pervasive computing, and sensor networks. I teach CSSE 653: Mobile Computing
Systems Programming.

Quick Facts
Course: Mobile Computing Systems Programming (CSSE 433-653)
Units: Computer Science and Software Engineering
Institution: University of Melbourne
Instructor: Lars Kulik
Level: Graduate
URLs: https://psc.unimelb.edu.au/view/subject/433-653.html; www.cs.mu.oz.au/653

The SUM lab

Instructors typically teach software development for mobile devices using simulation environments
from development kits such as Java Micro Edition (ME). These simulators and emulators, however, fall
short of representing the real-world behavior of mobile computing devices such as smart phones.
Small mobile devices are limited not only in their computing power and communications bandwidth
but also in their input mechanisms and output capabilities, such as screen size and resolution. MCSP
gives students hands-on experience that can fundamentally change how they develop programs for
small computing devices.

Egemen Tanin and I established the SUM (sensing, ubiquity, and mobility) lab, which we now run with
help from Ramamohanarao Kotagiri and Marimuthu Palaniswami. The SUM lab is one of the first of its
type in Australia. Its three objectives are for students to

x better understand how to develop programs for mobile devices,

x gain hands-on experience with current and soon-to-be-released devices (which benefits
students who seek industry employment), and
x learn to develop innovative solutions that address small pervasive devices’ restrictions.

The SUM lab is open to students enrolled in MCSP or Sensor Networks and Applications and to all
research students working in sensor networks, pervasive and ubiquitous computing, mobile
computing, and distributed computing. The lab uses smart phones, sensor nodes (we’re currently

IEEE Distributed Systems Online (vol. 8, no. 5), art. no. 0704-o5004 1
evaluating sensor motes from Sun Microsystems and Intel), and radio frequency identification (RFID)
readers and tags (from Nordic).

Interaction with mobile devices

Students can check out devices from the lab to enhance their experience, become familiar with
various devices, and experience a learning model different from the typical lab where a device is
tethered to a development machine. A mobile device’s constraints (such as limited input capabilities,
slow speed, or constrained battery life) can only be experienced through daily exposure.

Mobile devices enable a new classroom experience as lecturers—and later, students—present live
demonstrations. These demonstrations go beyond classical teaching techniques such as slide-based
presentations. Using mobile devices in the classroom helps students interact with the lecturer and
their colleagues at a new level. This direct interaction also gives them helpful feedback as they learn
from their peers’ experiences and design ideas.

For MCSP, we evaluated numerous devices and settled on smart phones for several reasons:

x They’re likely to become omnipresent because they unite the functionality of a range of mobile
devices, including mobile phones, PDAs, digital cameras, audio players, and video players.
x The latest smart phones integrate GPS receivers, and phone manufacturers are testing the use
of phones for mobile payment services. This functionality makes smart phones ideal for
programming projects.
x They enable a large range of applications, which encourages students to explore their ideas.
x Most smart phones also support WPAN (wireless personal area network) technologies such as
Bluetooth or wireless LANs (local area networks). The WPAN support is valuable for teaching
because it allows the deployment of routing algorithms for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs).

Developing software for mobile devices

A primary goal of the course was to offer students a choice of development environments for their
programming projects. We initially supported two environments, Java ME and the .NET Compact
Framework, for their relatively moderate learning curve and their market penetration. For example,
Java ME is supported by an estimated 1.5 billion phones (more than Java-supported PCs; (see
http://www.java.com/en/about)). We didn’t support other options such as the Binary Runtime
Environment for Wireless (BREW) or Symbian C++ because of their steep learning curve. This year,
we’ll also encourage students to use Python for their programming projects because it’s easy to learn
and all Nokia Series60 operating systems now support it (http://forum.nokia.com/python).

For optimal support of Java ME, Symbian OS, and Windows Mobile, the SUM lab provides two types of
smart phones for the programming projects. HP iPAQ smart phones support Java ME and the .NET
Compact Framework, and Nokia smart phones support Java ME and Python. Another reason we chose
two smart phones was to highlight mobile devices’ heterogeneity, which is a key challenge in
developing software for them. For example, the smart phones we chose have very different input
mechanisms. The Nokia phone has the classic 12-digit keypad, which is good for number input but
less suitable for longer text inputs. The HP iPAQ supports pen-based input—that is, a touch screen
with a stylus providing soft keyboards and supporting handwriting recognition. Coupled with various
small screen sizes, the two input modalities demonstrate that programming a mobile device’s user
interface is different from developing one for a standard PC.

Students quickly learn that they must apply two fundamental principles—abstraction and discovery—to
develop a platform-independent program that can run on numerous mobile devices. Using an abstract
description (such as “provide an ‘OK’ button”) is preferable to specifying where to draw a button on
the screen if the screen size is unknown. Abstraction uses less code and ensures that the device uses
its native look-and-feel, which provides a good end-user experience. Discovery, on the other hand,
finds out the device’s capabilities (such as its display size or color capabilities) at runtime. It’s the
preferred method for low-level user interfaces such as games.

IEEE Distributed Systems Online (vol. 8, no. 5), art. no. 0704-o5004 2
Syllabus
MCSP aims for a balance between teaching new mobile computing technologies and introducing
students to current research questions, addressing the needs of both academia and industry. The
course covers several important technologies and techniques, particularly

x mobile operating systems and development environments, including an in-depth discussion of

Java ME;
x interface development for mobile devices and dealing with different input modalities;
x wireless messaging fundamentals (such as push and pull), messaging services (such as short
message service and multimedia messaging service), and their implementations;
x wireless personal area network standards (such as Bluetooth and ZigBee) and upcoming
standards (such as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, or WiMAX) that enable
wireless broadband access;
x wireless wide area network (WWAN) standards, such as the Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM) and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), and their
underlying code-, frequency-, and time-based multiplexing techniques;
x architectures for thin clients that only have an Internet browser installed and access content
from wireless application servers via protocols such as WAP (wireless application protocol);
and
x indoor and outdoor position techniques for mobile devices (because location-based services
are a key emerging area in mobile computing applications).

The course also introduces students to advanced applications in current research, such as smart
product packaging, which lets consumers use a mobile phone as an augmented-reality device by
superimposing the mobile screen’s contents on the packaging’s captured visual background.2

To familiarize students with research issues, the course covers established topics such as routing in
Manets, which briefly introduces routing issues in sensor networks and directly connects to the MEDC
program’s next course, Sensor Networks and Applications. Because we expect RFID technologies to
become more integrated in mobile systems—for example, for payment services—the course also
addresses research issues for RFID tags—in particular, preventing threats (such as cloning and tag
forging) and maintaining security and privacy. Privacy is particularly important for RFID-enabled
products and location-based services because privacy-unaware approaches might inhibit these
forthcoming markets. Consequently, the course examines algorithms and approaches that balance the
need for privacy with the economic need for exact information such as IDs or precise locations.

Student projects
Programming projects are a vital component of the course. We don’t prescribe a particular project but
instead suggest possible projects that will inform students of the challenges in programming mobile
system applications. Because mobile devices typically have less CPU power and a small memory
footprint, intermittent low-bandwidth network connections, limited I/O capabilities, and often, no file
system, students must learn to deal with these constraints. Students learn to use text extensively,
compress images and reduce their size, use separate page sets for different device classes, balance
persistent storage with network access, and avoid horizontal scrolling and animation (except for
games).

The first year, the suggested projects included a mobile barcode scanner, comic-strip viewer, and
breakout game. The barcode scanner’s built-in camera would capture a simple barcode; after the
device identified the barcode, it would automatically download additional product information, such as
reviews. The comic-strip viewer would connect to Web sites that update their comic strips daily and
then adapt the pictures for a mobile screen. However, most students developed a sophisticated
breakout game in Java ME because the lectures covered the underlying programming techniques and
a detailed marking scheme fully specified the breakout game. The marking scheme highlights the
importance of

x appropriate feedback to users,

IEEE Distributed Systems Online (vol. 8, no. 5), art. no. 0704-o5004 3
 x wireless network access to a server or other mobile devices,
x using the device’s persistent storage,
x a well-designed game screen that adapts to different screen resolutions and layouts,
x correct game mechanics with accurate updates, and
x proper treatment of network and file systems errors.
The marking scheme helped students identify the important components in developing software for
mobile devices and served as a generic project guide. It also included bonus points that students could
earn by developing an exceptional project. For the breakout game, I awarded bonus points for
advanced tasks such as implementing a multiplayer version that could be played via a WPAN
connection (see figure 1).

Figure 1. An ad-hoc multiplayer mobile tank game developed by MEDC students Duncan Lau
and Thitipat Panyapinijnugoon. One device acts as a server and the others act as clients. All
devices access the same world but have slightly different world views because each screen
centers on the players’ tank.

Some student applications weren’t on the suggested projects list. One project focused on a Web
service–based infrastructure that lets users access an address book from any mobile device that
supports Java ME. Another project built an ad-hoc doodle platform in the .NET Compact Framework
that lets users exchange doodles on their mobile devices using a wireless LAN connection (see figure 2
and the "Additional Lecture Material" sidebar).

Figure 2. An ad-hoc mobile doodle platform developed by MEDC student Archana Sathivelu
that lets users exchange doodles on the fly. After a user draws a line, the platform
automatically updates the other devices.

IEEE Distributed Systems Online (vol. 8, no. 5), art. no. 0704-o5004 4
These projects teach students to work in small, effective teams to implement different applications.
Software deployment on heterogeneous devices requires that they learn to implement device-
independent implementation methods. Mobile device constraints often require creative skills and
careful planning. All students present their projects running on real devices at the end of the
semester. This is not only an enjoyable experience for students but also one that immediately shows
them how to improve their applications. As students are exposed to the latest computing technologies,
they obtain a competitive advantage compared to a classically taught course based on simulations. We
feel that this approach will not only help students develop a deeper understanding of mobile systems’
intricacies and programming than they could gain otherwise, but it could ultimately result in higher
success in industry employment.

Additional Lecture Material

A short video showing the ad-hoc Doodle platform developed by Archana Sathivelu.
WMV (http://dsonline.computer.org/portal/cms_docs_dsonline/dsonline/2007/05/Doodle.wmv)
MP4 (http://dsonline.computer.org/portal/cms_docs_dsonline/dsonline/2007/05/doodle.mp4)
A sample set of lecture slides on RFID technology.
PDF (http://dsonline.computer.org/portal/cms_docs_dsonline/dsonline/2007/05/RFID.pdf)

References

1. R. Buyya and R. Kotagiri, “ An Innovative Master’s Program in Distributed Computing,”

(http://dsonline.computer.org/portal/pages/dsonline/2007/01/o1002edu.html) IEEE
Distributed Systems Online,vol. 8, no. 1, 2007.
2. ETH Zurich, “Smart Product Packaging: A Research Demo of the Distributed Systems Group,”
April 2007; (http://www.vs.inf.ethz.ch/res/show.html?what=visualcodes-packaging).

Acknowledgments
I thank the University of Melbourne for supporting the SUM lab under the Major Equipment funding
scheme. I also thank lab members Egemen Tanin, Rao Kotagiri, and Marimuthu Palaniswami.

Lars Kulik is a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of
Melbourne. He also leads the university’s SUM (sensing, ubiquity, mobility) lab. Contact him at
lars@csse.unimelb.edu.au.

Related Links
x "MoCA: A Middleware for Developing Collaborative Applications for Mobile Users," IEEE DS
Online (http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MDSO.2004.26)
x "Content and Web Services Converge: A Unified User Interface," IEEE Pervasive Computing
(http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2005.74)
x "Mobile Local Macropayments: Security and Prototyping," IEEE Pervasive Computing
(http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2006.78)
x "Middleware for Protocol-Based Coordination in Mobile Applications," IEEE DS Online
(http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MDSO.2006.50)
x "Spotlight: The Rise of the Smart Phone," IEEE DS Online
(http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MDSO.2006.22)

Cite this article:

Lars Kulik, "Mobile Computing Systems Programming: A Graduate Distributed Computing Course",
IEEE Distributed Systems Online, vol. 8, no. 5, 2007, art. no. 0705-o5004.

IEEE Distributed Systems Online (vol. 8, no. 5), art. no. 0704-o5004 5