This paper proposes the session layer communication continuity support for Java applications toward a continuous operation for the users. In a mobile computing environment mobile hosts move around thedifferent network segments even during applications communicate with the remote endpoint.In such a situation maintenance of thecommunication continuity between the applications is significant.In order to retain the communication continuity not only the mobilitysupport but the virtual circuit continuity support is required forapplications.Existing approaches on the network the transport and the sessionlayers do not provide the complete mobility and virtual circuitcontinuity for applications although they require the complicatedimplementation.``MobileSocket'' is a user-level enhanced socket library written inJava and provides the library-based session layer mobility andvirtual circuit continuity support for applications. Two mechanisms Dynamic Socket Switching (DSS) and Application LayerWindow (ALW) enforce MobileSocket and enable the implementationsimplicity.MobileSocket applications can be used in the Java mobile applications and the agents as well as in ordinary network applications.In this paper after we clarify the communication continuity andexisting approaches we present the MobileSocket design mechanism and evaluation results.

This paper proposes the session layer communication continuity support for Java applications toward a continuous operation for the users. In a mobile computing environment, mobile hosts move around thedifferent network segments even during applications communicate with the remote endpoint.In such a situation, maintenance of thecommunication continuity between the applications is significant.In order to retain the communication continuity, not only the mobilitysupport but the virtual circuit continuity support is required forapplications.Existing approaches on the network, the transport and the sessionlayers do not provide the complete mobility and virtual circuitcontinuity for applications, although they require the complicatedimplementation.``MobileSocket'' is a user-level enhanced socket library written inJava, and provides the library-based session layer mobility andvirtual circuit continuity support for applications. Two mechanisms, Dynamic Socket Switching (DSS) and Application LayerWindow (ALW) enforce MobileSocket and enable the implementationsimplicity.MobileSocket applications can be used in the Java mobile applications and the agents, as well as in ordinary network applications.In this paper, after we clarify the communication continuity andexisting approaches, we present the MobileSocket design, mechanism, and evaluation results.