Using cooperation to improve the experience of mobile Web Services consumers

Mobile and nomadic devices such as cell phones and PDAs have evolved in recent years from resource constrained appliances to highly connected and increasingly powerful devices. This in turn has led to the development of standardized platforms most notably Windows mobile, Java micro edition, Android and the IPhone OS which enable third party developers to build applications fairly easy. Thanks to the widespread acceptance of Web services, it is fairly easy to access resources/services from a mobile/nomadic device. However, by relying on external resources and services, the QoS (quality of Service) is of the upmost importance. Especially if a mobile/nomadic device is engaged in the execution of a workflow, it is vital to keep service latencies at a minimum. This paper investigates the use of cooperation between consumers and providers as an effective means of improving the experience of service consumers.