Objective

The objective of this document is to describe the key concepts that developers need to understand about the mimik Client Library for Android.

Intended Readers

The intended readers of this document are Android software developers and system integrators that will be using the mimik Client Library when programming an Android application.

What You Need to Know Before You Start

In order to get the full benefit of this document, the intended readers should be familiar with the following:

• The basics of the purpose and use of the the mimik mim OE Runtime
• The basics of using an Access Token to access and work with the mim OE Runtime
• The basics of programming Android applications using the Gradle Build Tool

What You Will Learn from This Document

After reading this document you will understand:

• The basics of the purpose and use of the mimik mim OE Runtime and Client Library

Understanding the Purpose of the mimik Client Library

The purpose of the mimik Client Library is to provide a programmatic way to work with the mim OE Runtime to access information about the mobile device on which the application is running as well as mobile devices running within a cluster of mobile devices that are hosting the mim OE Runtime. Also, the mimik Client Library allows developers to use edge microservices that are running within a particular cluster.

The mim OE Runtime has the ability to transform a mobile device into an edge computing device. Edge computing is a distributed computing framework that allows independent devices such as cell phones, mobile tablets and other types of IoT devices to do computationally intensive work internally using their own computing resources. Then, when the computation is completed, the result is passed on to other devices or back to a central server. It's the difference between having a cell phone that has the capability to do facial recognition using its own computing power as opposed to having to send a photo back for facial recognition processing at a central location. The benefit is that more useful work can be done faster, in a more flexible manner, while incurring less burden on the network.

Using the mimik Client Library allows developers to create applications that work with the mim OE Runtime to take advantage of the power and flexibility inherent in the edge computing paradigm.

Additional reading

In order to get more out of this article, the reader could further familiarize themselves with the following concepts and techniques:

• Creating a Simple Android Application that Uses an edge microservice.
• Integrating the mimik Client Library into an Android project.
• Working with mim OE in an Android project.
• Working with edge microservices in an Android project.