This paper is a survey of the fundamental software design pressures particular to mobile computing. Promising approaches to address the problems are identified, along with their shortcomings.
The section on Communication considers the implications of using wireless networks, for example, susceptibility to disconnection, low bandwidth availability, and highly variable network conditions.
The section on Mobility discusses the consequences of being able to change locations, such as dynamically changing network addresses, location-dependent answers to user queries and system configuration, and communication locality that deteriorates as mobile users move away from their servers.
The section on Portability investigates the pressures stemming from the need to make the mobile device easy to carry, such as scarce battery power, risk of data loss, and small surface area available for the user interface.
In order to expose a greater assortment of issues, the target in mind is large scale, hand-held mobile computing. Of course, special purpose systems may avoid some design pressures by doing without certain desirable properties. For instance, mobile computers installed in the dashboards of cars would be less concerned with the portability pressures than would hand-held mobile computers.