Abstract
Now that 3G technologies have reached their maturity, newly advanced services can be delivered to the mobile user. These include contextaware services, adaptable services and Virtual Home Environment (VHE)-like services. Important research issues relate, however, to managing such services through appropriate service architectures which permit effective adaptation mechanisms, allowing the user to experience an ‘adapted’ service as he/she switches across terminals, networks, and providers. In this paper we present a VHE middleware system and its prototype implementation developed in the context of the IST VESPER project. We place particular emphasis on the realization of a service management approach that enables multi-dimensional service adaptation acting upon the service context. We elaborate on the benefits of our middleware-based solution whose functionality is illustrated through an adaptable multimedia content delivery application. Lessons learned from our prototype implementation are integrated by a feasibility study aimed at discussing how adaptable service management may be achieved today outside a laboratory environment.