Extending the JCR standard to work efficiently in mobile RCS environments

Internet companies have been exploiting the massive penetration of smart phones by developing applications of instant messaging, group communication, file sharing, etc. Rich Communication Services (RCS) allow telecom operators to provide their clients experiences beyond voice and SMS, and therefore, to compete against widely extended IP-based services such as Skype or Whatsapp using IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS). In this context, telecom operators have taken advantage of different technologies, specifications and standards that provide the means to supply innovative, secure and reliable rich communication services. Regarding content storage and management issues, both data and metadata need to be efficiently managed with more sophisticated technologies than traditional file systems or database systems. One of these technologies is JCR (Java Content Repository), suitable for developing file sharing services in mobile environments. This content repository API for Java allows a clear separation between the functionalities to manage the repository and the application-specific functionalities. This work analyses the suitability of the JCR standard to RCS environments and proposes a extension to the standard with the aim of identifying redundant file uploads in order to save network bandwidth.