A Policy Enforcement Framework for Ubiquitous Computing Applications

Future ubiquitous computing environments integrate the services of everyday objects equipped with tiny processors and sensors into distributed applications. These smart devices can communicate with each other and also explore their environment. In order for the applications to function properly, policies need to be defined, which determine ways that they can be used, protected, changed, etc. A policy can be considered as a set of rules, specified by users, which are usually applied by a policy manager. In this paper we proposed an alternative approach, which supports the adoption of policies directly by the applications without the need of an enforcing policy manager. Two everyday scenarios are used as examples that demonstrate the validity of the approach.