Remote Class Loading for Mobile Devices

The CLDC defines the base feature set of a Java Virtual Machine with limited application programming interfaces that aims to be deployed on the most restricted subset of hardware. This paper envisages the design of a platform that will allow remote class loading on mobile devices. Mobile networks are made up of mobile devices without underlying infrastructure, but their features make them intrinsically difficult to manage. Therefore a flexible mechanism is designed based on remote class loading. The proposed virtual machine, MODECO, allows remote class loading in contrast to the CLDC machine that has not such a feature. MODECO is evaluated in relation to the CLDC reference implementation. It is proved that the changes in the class loading mechanism have a small influence in the overall performance of the virtual machine.