Future Trends of Wireless Middleware

From what we described above, wireless middleware has grown from the traditional middleware background to having a life of its own. The early attempts of stating that standard wired middleware products are "suitable for wireless" have passed, and the wireless middleware products in commercial use today have different requirements, use different transport protocols, and have different concepts of robustness of connection.

In the future, we will see these products enhanced with a rich array of features to handle different application domains. Already, XML-based middleware is produced that uses XML as its internal structure. Middleware incorporating wireless payments as an additional feature is available. In the future, wireless middleware will be tailored to include specialized applications for entertainment, gambling, and synchronization of applications. However, the underlying features will be the basic facilities as described in this chapter.