UDC 621.398: 681.

Network Applications for Mobile Computing

VAkiyoshi Ochi VToru Atsumi VKeiji Michine

(Manuscript received March 26,1998)

Mobile computing, which enables real-time remote access to corporate networks from
a notebook computer, is now being spotlighted as notebook computers become smaller
and more complex, and ISDN, wireless networks, and cellular phones become more
popular. Unlike conventional networks, many problems encountered when construct-
ing mobile computing environments affect mobile computing users and network ad-
ministrators. This paper discusses these problems and introduces three
communications software products to help users overcome them.

1. Introduction 2. Problems of Mobile Computing

The current trend toward downsizing and We first considered situations in which mo-
greater complexity has enhanced the mobility of bile computing is used to identify problems that
computers, thus affording convenient use any- occur when constructing a mobile computing en-
where at any time. The significant progress made vironment based on existing network infrastruc-
in communications technology has facilitated the ture.
explosive growth of ISDN and wireless networks, As previously mentioned, mobile computing
in addition to the popularization of PHS and cel- requires an environment in which anyone and any
lular phones. Such advanced technologies have necessary information can be accessed at any time
thrust mobile computing, which enables the re- from any location. For mobile computing, “from
mote access of electronic information, into the any location” is the key consideration. Thus, the
public limelight. most pressing problem is how to construct a net-
Corporate information systems require a net- work environment that enables access from any
work environment for mobile computing so that location in the same way.
employees can effectively use business informa- The use of mobile computing can be catego-
tion, promote the sharing of information, expand rized by location as follows:
lines of communication, improve work efficiency, 1) Inside the company
and enhance customer confidence and satisfaction. In this case, employees must go to other de-
However, unlike conventional networks, many partments with portable computers to access in-
problems and inconveniences imposed by mobili- formation servers in the office, the Internet via
ty are encountered when companies construct en- LAN, or infrared communications environments.
vironments for mobile computing. Otherwise, company employees must go to other
This paper identifies and discusses these companies to access information servers via LAN
problems then introduces communications soft- or infrared communications environments.
ware with which users can overcome them.

FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J.,34,1,pp.41-49(September 1998) 41

A.Ochi et al.: Network Applications for Mobile Computing

2) Outside the company • Information required to communicate with

In this case, employees access information TCP/IP(e.g., IP address, subnet mask, gate-
servers in the corporate networks from outside the way address)
company (e.g., while on a train, in a hotel, or at • Names of printers and information about
home) using cellular or public phones to obtain printer drivers required to print documents
information or send reports. This includes access- • Names and addresses of shared servers re-
ing corporate or WWW servers on the Internet quired to exchange information
through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). • Information about the operating environ-
ments of application software
2.1 Problems When Used Inside the Some basic information described above (e.g.,
Company IP address, subnet mask, gateway address) can
LAN or an infrared communications environ- be automatically obtained from the Dynamic Host
ment is generally used to access a server in our Configuration Protocol (DHCP)2) server. The fol-
department or another department from a porta- lowing problems are encountered, however, when
ble computer. In this case, the following needs applying DHCP to mobile computing.3)
must be addressed: • Difficulty in pooling IP addresses for mobile
1) Constructing information outlets users due to depleted IP addresses
Employees going to another department or • Mobile computer access of multiple IP ad-
company to access servers in their departments dresses
or on the Internet must connect their computers • Unsecured network access due to IP address
to the network there. This is why access points assignment upon request
(information outlets) must be provided for mobile Because information about printers, shared
users in every department. Since conventional servers, and operating environments for applica-
network environments are constructed based on tion software is unique to each department’s net-
access from fixed computers, there may be no ac- work, this information must be obtained from the
cess points for mobile users. Consequently, infor- network administrator of the department con-
mation outlets (i.e., access points for LAN or in- cerned. Thus, mobile users wishing to remotely
frared communications) must be constructed for access a conventional network environment must
mobile computing. first obtain the information required from the
2) Unified administration and automatic dis- network administrator then manually reconfigure
tribution of communications environments their computers. These tasks impose a large bur-
Due to the growing prevalence of the Inter- den on both administrators and mobile users.
net, TCP/IP is commonly used in corporate net- To enhance the convenience of mobile com-
works. Unfortunately, this protocol is based on puting environments and relieve the burden on
access from fixed computers. New protocols like network administrators, a mechanism is needed
Mobile IP1) are now being studied to apply TCP/ to enable the unified administration of informa-
IP to mobile computing in some prominent insti- tion needed by mobile users, and to automatically
tutions and corporations, but this will take time obtain the information when required and recon-
to complete. figure the mobile computers.
Even with information outlets provided, mo- 3) Assurance of network security
bile users must obtain the following location-de- Constructing mobile computing environ-
pendent information and configure their mobile ments in corporate departments or subsidiaries
machines to construct the same access environ- may incur the risk of unauthorized network ac-
ments as in their departments: cess from outside the company. Since confiden-

42 FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J.,34,1,(September 1998)

 A.Ochi et al.: Network Applications for Mobile Computing

tial information within a department or company nificantly reduced.

may be leaked, adequate provisions should be Such compression technologies as data com-
made for security when constructing mobile com- pression and IP header compression also help re-
puting environments. duce communication costs. Other technologies are
For example, the conventional mechanism of also being studied to reduce costs. The most im-
DHCP allows anyone to obtain an IP address from portant considerations for mobile computing are
the DHCP server in the network and then access reducing the amount of data transferred and the
the network. A mechanism is required to verify connection time.
users attempting to access the network, but which 2) Automatic recovery from line errors
does not assign IP addresses to unauthenticated During communication using cellular phones
users for network access. A means to prevent through a wireless network, radio waves may be
mobile users from accessing particular servers obstructed and the computer disconnected. In
that keep highly confidential information is also such case, the call must be made again. This takes
needed. time and is an inefficient means of communicat-
Since mobile users connected to LAN can ing.
view information flowing through the network, im- Therefore, a means of automatically recon-
portant information should be transmitted with necting notebook and other computers, and resum-
data encryption, or LAN segments for mobile us- ing data transfer from the point of interruption
ers should be kept separate in the department. must be devised so that disconnection is trans-
parent to the application software.
2.2 Problems When Used Outside the 3) Countermeasures against wiretapping of
Company data and illegal access of corporate networks
Remotely accessing a corporate server with There may be other means of accessing a cor-
a portable computer generally requires connection porate network via the nearest ISP to reduce com-
through a wireless network using cellular phones, munication costs. However, a high-risk factor ex-
or through a dial-up network or ISDN using pub- ists since confidential information may pass
lic phones or hotel telephones. Therefore, the prob- through the Internet and be illegally accessed.
lems posed by using a wireless network or access- Therefore, a means to enable cryptographic com-
ing a corporate network through ISP should be munications must be devised.
addressed as follows: Another means to protect access points in cor-
1) Reducing communication costs porate networks is needed. Anyone who knows
The remote access of corporate networks pos- the phone number of an access point and the pass-
es accounting problems since most communica- word can access a corporate network through a
tion is performed through a Wide Area Network mobile computing environment. This is why the
(WAN) like a dial-up network. Therefore, a more illegal access of networks is relatively easy. More
cost-effective means of communications, such as importantly, a system could actually be destroyed
one that applies mobile agent technology, is ur- by the leaking of confidential information. There-
gently needed. fore, firewalls should be installed at the access
This technology allows mobile agents ar- points of corporate networks with strict authenti-
ranged in the corporate network to perform tasks cation to prevent illegal access.
as instructed and report the results via notebook We have identified and discussed existing
computers. In this way, connection need not be problems when constructing mobile computing en-
maintained while the mobile agents actually per- vironments. The next chapter introduces some
form the jobs, and communication costs can be sig- communications software products with which

FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J.,34,1,(September 1998) 43

A.Ochi et al.: Network Applications for Mobile Computing

connection for mobile computers, and enables LAN

Windows NT workstation Windows NT server
Windows 95 environment access without sacrificing the port-
Internet
ability of mobile computers. IR Gateway features
the following :
1) Easier mobile computer setup
TCP/IP
IR Gateway provides a simplified DHCP
IR Gateway function that allows client mobile computers to
Gateway machine
communicate without having to consider the en-
IR Gateway
vironment (IP address).
Client machine Simplified DHCP runs on gateway machines
Infrared commnication and automatically sets the information necessary
for TCP/IP communication, such as the IP address,
default gateway, and Windows Internet Name
Figure.1
IR Gateway. Service (WINS).4) This simplifies mobile comput-
er setup.
2) Network Address Translation (NAT) 5) function
users can overcome these problems. The existing IP network requires an IP ad-
dress for each host. The number of usable IP ad-
3. Mobile Computing Software dresses is limited, however, and the depletion of
To solve the problems mentioned above, we IP addresses becomes a problem as the number of
developed the following products : hosts increases. IR Gateway provides the NAT
– IR Gateway function, which eliminates the need for a new IP
– Network AccessDirector (tentative name) address when a mobile computer is connected via
– WebCross a gateway machine.
This function makes it possible to share IP
3.1 IR Gateway addresses previously assigned to a gateway ma-
IR Gateway is a software product that en- chine. For communication between a gateway
ables the wireless access of TCP/IP-based intra- machine and mobile computer, IR Gateway uses
nets by employing standard infrared ports imple- a private IP address. This address is created au-
mented in notebook computers and INTERTopnote1) tomatically on the gateway machine and set up in
(Figure 1). the mobile computer by the simplified DHCP func-
IR Gateway allows mobile computers (e.g., tion above.
notebook computers, INTERTop) used in the com- 3) Routing function between a mobile comput-
pany to easily access LAN without having to con- er and LAN
sider each network’s environment. This solves the With IR Gateway, a mobile computer usual-
problem of having to reconfigure network settings ly uses the IP address of a subnet (network num-
for every site visited (as described in Chapter 2). ber) other than the network to which the gateway
This software also eliminates the need for such machine belongs. Therefore, a mobile computer
hardware options as a LAN card and direct cable sends all packets to the gateway machine as the
default gateway. To route these packets, IR Gate-
way queues the packets once on the gateway ma-
note1) INTERTop is a mobile terminal developed chine. Once the destination address of each pack-
by FUJITSU LIMITED.
INTERTop is a registered trademark of et is determined by ARP,6) the packets are routed
FUJITSU LIMITED. to LAN.

44 FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J.,34,1,(September 1998)

 A.Ochi et al.: Network Applications for Mobile Computing

4) Improved performance Table.1 List of configuration items.

The maximum transfer speed of IrDA is 115.2 Function Item
kbps or 4 Mbps. Though communication speed is Browser Homepage, Security, Connection, Proxy server
Mailer Server information (SMTP, POP3 server address),
much faster than that of serial transfer or a WAN User information (User name, Password, E-mail
network, it is much slower than the 10 Mbps or address)
100 Mbps of LAN media. To improve performance, 6680 Connection (Procedure, Information name), Local
emulator information, Relay device, Device type, Session,
IR Gateway compresses data for communication Extended function
between a gateway machine and mobile comput- Others Files configured by administrators in advance,
er. By compressing data, transfer speed is in- Registry key and value

creased 3 or 4 times.
5) Compliance with WINS protocol administrator for help in completing their work.
When multiple gateway machines equipped For instance, to print something, these users ask
with IR Gateway run on LAN and a mobile com- about which printer (and printer driver) to use,
puter is moved between each machine, the IP ad- or to pass files to someone, they ask about which
dress of the mobile computer on LAN will change network drive of which server should be shared.
dynamically. The IP address of the mobile com- The growing workload placed on intranet admin-
puter does not change, however, and registration istrators can no longer be ignored. To resolve such
in WINS is not updated. Consequently, the con- problems, we will implement the three features
tents of registration in WINS may differ from the described below.
actual IP address from the standpoint of LAN. To • Automatic configuration of the application
solve this problem, the gateway machine checks environment
the contents of WINS registration upon detecting This feature allows Network AccessDirector
a connection by IR. If the IP addresses do not servers to configure mobile computers automati-
match, the gateway machine updates the regis- cally according to the environment information set
tration instead of the mobile computer. by the administrator in advance so that mobile
users can use applications like browsers when
3.2 Network AccessDirector accessing the intranet in the field. Table 1 lists
Network AccessDirector is a product now examples of configuration items.
being developed. It allows employees who use • Automatic sharing of network drives
notebook computers or handheld PCs to access an When mobile users access the intranet in the
intranet more easily, while reducing the adminis- field using shared resources on the Network Ac-
trator’s intranet workload. cessDirector servers set by the administrator in
Network AccessDirector provides all the nec- advance, this feature maps network drives and
essary functions mentioned in Chapter 2 (e.g., au- creates shortcuts on the desktop.
tomatic configuration of network environment in- When a mobile computer is connected to the
formation, network security function) for workers network, files, Web pages and display notices for
dispatched to company offices or other companies. network users, as well as floor plans (showing the
1) Automatic configuration of network environ- location of printers, etc.) can be opened as the need
ment arises.
Mobile users wishing to access the intranet • Automatic sharing of printers
must first configure the address and other infor- When mobile users access the intranet in the
mation for each application (e.g., browser, mailer) field using shared resources on the Network Ac-
in addition to various network settings about the cessDirector servers set by the administrator in
TCP/IP stack. Such users often ask the intranet advance, this feature automatically configures the

FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J.,34,1,(September 1998) 45

A.Ochi et al.: Network Applications for Mobile Computing

File server WWW server Print server Mail server Network AccessDirector

Internet
Network AccessDirector

Mail server
(ISP)

Figure 3.
Mail transmitter.

Plug In
restricts access to critical information and protects
against leakage of internal information.
Figure 2. 4) Mail transmitter
Automatic configuration of network environment.
As a means of communication, e-mail is an
essential feature for mobile users. To receive mail
computer environment (for sharing network print- in the field, users must access the POP3 server in
ers and selecting printer drivers) and allows us- their HOME LAN (in the office) or transfer re-
ers to print. ceived mail to an account that can be accessed in
2) Automatic reconfiguration of the network the field. Accessing the server poses the problems
environment of cost and security. To transfer mail, users must
Thanks to this feature, a mobile computer is ask the mail server administrator to change the
automatically reconfigured and restored to the configuration in advance, which increases admin-
previous network settings made in the field. Au- istrative costs and may prove impossible in the
tomatic configuration and this automatic recon- event of a sudden business trip.
figuration allow mobile users to switch the con- To resolve such problems, Network Access-
figurations of mobile PCs automatically in Director provides the mail transmitter feature.
different network environments and access the The mail transmitter allows users in the field to
network without having to consider location (Fig- transfer mail addressed to the POP3 server in the
ure 2). HOME LAN (in the office) to their home (ISP) or
3) User authentication and restricted access mail account in the network without having to
The risk of internal information being leaked change the current configuration (of the POP3
exists whenever a mobile user uses another sec- server) and network settings of the home envi-
tion’s LAN environment. Network AccessDirec- ronment (Figure 3).
tor provides a function that authenticates users Mail transmitter works as a POP3 client. It
for access to the LAN environment and prevents operates as follows:
unauthenticated users from making such an ac- 1) Mobile users e-mail transmission requests
cess. Network AccessDirector provides another to the mail transmitter. The following infor-
function that blocks packets other than those of mation must be included: Authentication in-
specified services and addresses. This function formation, HOME LAN account, destination

46 FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J.,34,1,(September 1998)

 A.Ochi et al.: Network Applications for Mobile Computing

TERTop) due to limited resources and OS support.

When considering the means of access, access from
a mobile computer poses many problems. A mo-
bile computer requires special hardware (e.g., a
communication card for the communication pro-
tocols), entails problems of communication cost
and security due to the limited number of access
points served by the mainframe computer or Fujit-
su Network Architecture (FNA)note4) gateway serv-
er, and requires registration in the mainframe
computer beforehand. To overcome these prob-
Figure 4. lems, we developed the following functions:
WebCross. • Host data conversion into HTML
WebCross employs a method of converting
address, and attribute of transmitted mail F6680/I3270note5) format data into HTML-based
(e.g., enable/disable file attachment). Trans- text data for display on a client machine’s WWW
mission requests are encrypted with authen- browser in conjunction with the FNA gateway
tication information attached to protect server and WWW server. Consequently, mobile
against intrusion. users can use the F6680/I3270 display terminal
2) Upon receiving a transmission request, the function without needing to change their existing
mail transmitter decrypts the message, au- mobile computers (hardware and software) on the
thenticates the client, then reads mail from network environment. WebCross also supports the
the account (alternative reception) according display of F6680/I3270 screen input fields in the
to the transmission request. same format as used by the WWW browser.
3) The mail transmitter transfers mail accord- • Code conversion
ing to the reported conditions. WebCross offers a function to automatically
convert Japanese (2-byte) code and one-byte code
3.3 WebCross (which differ between the mainframe computer
WebCrossnote2) is a software product that en- and WWW browser) by preparing conversion ta-
ables mobile users to access a mainframe comput- bles on the server machine beforehand. User-de-
er based on Internet/intranet infrastructure and fined code other than standard codes is converted
its access environment (Figure 4). the same way.
1) Using existing infrastructure • Emulator private key
Communicating with a mainframe comput- F6680/I3270 terminals have special keys
er from a personal computer conventionally re- such as program function (PF) keys and program
quires special software with a terminal emulation access (PA) keys that are not supported by WWW
function, such as WSMGR.note3) In many cases, browsers. The keypad function provides a meth-
however, such terminal emulation software is not od of entering these keys from a WWW browser
installed at mobile terminals (e.g., PDA, HPC, IN- screen.

note2) WebCross is a registered trademark of note4) FNA is the generic name of protocols used to
FUJITSU LIMITED. access Fujitsu mainframe computers.
note3) WSMGR is a registered trademark of note5) F6680/I3270 is the name of a device used to
FUJITSU LIMITED. access mainframe computers.

FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J.,34,1,(September 1998) 47

A.Ochi et al.: Network Applications for Mobile Computing

2) Support of PDAs 4. Conclusion

In addition to the functions described in 1) This paper discussed specific problems that
above, the following functions were developed for should be considered when constructing a mobile
use on PDAs. computing environment, and introduced commu-
• Adjustable display size nications software products developed to overcome
The display size of PDAs is much smaller these problems.
than that of notebook PCs, and the host screen is Unfortunately, these products cannot resolve
poorly displayed when converted as is. WebCross all aspects of these problems. To construct better
solves this problem by providing a function to thin environments for mobile computing, many remain-
out the display so that blank lines are not dis- ing problems involving hardware, protocols, ap-
played. plication software, and other considerations must
• Improved response be addressed.
WebCross operation with a PDA is performed We should approach these problems not only
via a dial-up connection. The built-in modems of from a technological standpoint, but also with re-
existing PDAs offer relatively low speed and nor- gard to the prevailing characteristics of mobile
mally communicate at about 14.4 to 33.6 kbps. computing at a given time.
When using a digital mobile phone, the maximum
transfer speed is 9,600 bps. Response had to be References
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48 FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J.,34,1,(September 1998)

 A.Ochi et al.: Network Applications for Mobile Computing

Akiyoshi Ochi received a B.S. degree Keiji Michine received an M.S. degree
in Electrical Engineering from Ehime in Mathematics from Ehime University
University in 1987. in 1983.
He joined PFU Ltd., Machida in 1987 He joined PFU Ltd., Machida in 1983
and has been engaged in the research and has been engaged in the research
and development of software for Inte- and development of mainframe connec-
grated Services Digital Network (ISDN) tivity software for personal computers.
and infrared (IR) communication.

Toru Atsumi received an M.S. degree

in Applied Physics and Chemistry from
the University of Electro-Communica-
tions in Tokyo in 1990.
He joined Fujitsu Ltd., Kawasaki in 1990
and has been engaged in the develop-
ment of communication software for
personal computers.

FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J.,34,1,(September 1998) 49