Abstract: The present invention generally relates to the field of mobile multimedia middleware, quality-of-service, shared resource reservation mechanisms, distributed processing systems, handheld computers, computer networking and wireless communication. Particularly, the present invention describes a processing system and pieces of software for one or more communication networks, with middleware comprising an application programming interface (102) cast over a data model describing quality-of-service contracts and quality-of-service adaptation paths specified by quality-of-service aware mobile multimedia applications (101) using said programming interface, in order to manage quality-of-service and mobility-aware for managing network connections with other applications. The present invention hereby relates to a corresponding data model as well as the necessary architecture.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a processing system and to pieces of software for one or more communication networks. Applications are provided with a platform-and network-independent framework for achieving cross-adaptability by providing components for QoS management in the communication network(s) by means of a component coordinator unit (10).

Abstract: The invention generally relates to the field of mobile multimedia middle-ware, computer networking, distributed processing systems, data bases, hand-held computers and wireless communication. A method for conveniently managing user profile information in an unified instant messaging system (7) is proposed. This method operates on a data base structure, which accommodates in a flexible way subscribers' information. More specifically, this method takes into account the mutable characteristics of the environment where subscribers' devices (9) are operating: subscribers can in fact freely modify their personal user profiles (1) as situations change and/or as they move to different geographical locations.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a communication device and a software for operating multimedia applications in one or more communication networks, with a computing manager unit (52) for managing and providing multimedia applications on the basis of a communication with one or more communication devices in the one or more communication networks, whereby the computing manager unit (52) controls a device discovery manager unit (58) for detecting the availability of one or more devices and/or one or more communication networks, a service discovery manager unit (56) for providing available services from and/or for said one or more communication networks, and a virtual device manager unit (60) providing a graphical user interface for controlling devices and/or services of the one or more communication networks.