—————————— ✦ —————————— One of the most challenging and interesting recent trends in the computer and telecommunications industries is the integration of mobile communications and computing. The resulting distributed network, referred to as a mobile computing system, is in more that one way fundamentally different from conventional wired computer networks. Wireless connectivity enhances the functionality of computing equipment by freeing communication from the location constraints of the wireline infrastructure. By changing this basic characteristic, mobile computing systems operate on a set of assumptions made by traditional computing systems, requiring researchers and users to redefine their model of networked computing. The successful use of mobile computing faces several challenges, among them: