Mobile computing and wireless communications for construction projects Literature review

Mobile computing and wireless communications for construction projects - Literature review Example At present, the majority of construction businesses necessitate flexibility for their staff about place and time. In this scenario, information and communication technology (ICT) and its products (such as mobile and wireless computing) offer the independence of mobility to members in the construction market and business. Additionally, the wireless connectivity and mobile technologies can be implemented in construction sites in an attempt to ensure real-time data transferred all through the business tasks (Garza & Howitt, 1998; Koseoglu & Nielsen, 2005). In addition, it is believed that the acceptance and implementation of modern technologies such as mobile and wireless computing inside the construction sector is not up to scratch, in particular when related to the considerable research endeavor and outlay taking place inside this sector. On the other hand, there are several instances of wireless computing, and yet location aware computing that have been implemented effectively within the construction sector and shown fruitful results. Moreover, these instances have demonstrated how successful implementations of mobile and Wireless Computing have received greater user acceptance and shown an amazing return on investment within one year of implementation (May et al., 2005). Furthermore, the mobile and wireless computing has gained popularity in the past few years. ... This paper presents the preliminary findings from a literature review focusing on the usage of mobile computing and wireless communications for construction projects. This paper will discuss different aspects of mobile and wireless technology, their advantages and disadvantages for the construction projects. Evolution of Mobile Computing Before we proceed towards the discussion on the use of mobile computing for construction projects, we must understand the theories and concepts related to mobile computing. Historically, the developments in the computer networking during mid-1970s have offered a great deal of support for the potential development of mobile computing technology. This technology has offered a reality of distributed computing that provides the capabilities for numerous computers and clients to communicate and share remote data and information resources over a network. It has also given birth to a lot of other related fields such as distributed computing, comprising dist ant collaboration and communication, high accessibility, fault tolerance, communication security, remote information access. In addition, with the emergence of high-tech laptop computers, the wireless networks and the incorporation of cellular technology with the Web, required the researchers to design new network technology based distributed systems for mobile clients. Additionally, the mobile computing that relates a lot of fundamental standards of distributed system design, and that as well expands this hypothesis to convene mobile users’ needs, offers a fundamental arrangement in which clients are able to access the similar point in the