Internet Telephony in Ubiquitous Computing Environments

Abstract

Nowadays VoIP plays an important role in communication, and more and more people use VoIP instead of traditional telephones because of low cost, accessibility and improved quality. However, one of disadvantages of VoIP is that users have to receive the Internet calls by headset and microphone, which are attached to a PC. This way restricts the users’ mobility and doesn’t meet the need of modern users. An innovative improvement would be to use some existing wireless technology to impart mobility to VoIP calls. We propose to use Bluetooth due to its widespread availability in already ubiquitous mobile phone market. Bluetooth is a short-range communication protocol intended to replace the cables connecting portable and /or fixed electronic devices. Bluetooth is one of the most widespread wireless technologies available in most mobile phones available in the market today because of its low power consumption, low cost and robustness. This project aims at using Bluetooth enabled mobile phones as wireless headsets for PCs that run Internet telephony software in order to induce mobility. The project focuses on investigation and analysis of Bluetooth and related technology for building such a solution, such as service discovery, redirection, security and fast handover. From the research done, this thesis proposes mechanisms and design for a prototype that allows the connection between PCs and Bluetooth enabled mobile phones. The project also reviews different available alternatives and compares existing solutions. We believe that since Bluetooth and VoIP become more and more mature, our project will be applied in people’s daily life soon. And this ideas proposed in this project would be a convenient and useful extension to already existing Bluetooth server available on most mobile phones, providing that extra bit of mobility around a workstation or PC.