The Java Context Awareness Framework (JCAF) – A Service Infrastructure and Programming Framework for Context-Aware Applications

Context-awareness is a key concept in ubiquitous computing. But to avoid developing dedicated context-awareness sub-systems for specific application areas there is a need for more generic programming frameworks. Such frameworks can help the programmer develop and deploy context-aware applications faster. This paper describes the Java Context-Awareness Framework – JCAF, which is a Java-based context-awareness infrastructure and programming API for creating context-aware computer applications. The paper presents the design goals of JCAF, its runtime architecture, and its programming model. The paper presents some applications of using JCAF in three different applications and discusses lessons learned from using JCAF.