Mobile Database Research And Experimental Design

Mobile computers and wireless networks are rapidly growing technologies that are available to a wide variety of computer users. Unlike earlier generations of laptop computers, the new generation of mobile computers can be an integrated part of a distributed computing environment, one in which users change physical location frequently, another in which the connection is unreliable and frequently disconnected. This result is a new computing paradigm, pervasive computing or mobile computing. This paradigm will affect the design of much of our current systems software, including that of database systems. In this paper, we analyze the impact that mobile computing has had in the area of data management. We first analyze each of the distinctive features of mobile computing and how they impact the implementation of databases for mobile computers, creating new opportunities for research. The features of the mobile environment include: Asymmetry in the communication; Frequent disconnections; Power limitations; Screen limitations. Then for each of these problems we survey the research work in the recent years. In order to improve our future research in mobile databases, we build a prototype of mobile database. Another reason that impel us to do this is the lure of the market that mobile computing creates. From chapter 3 to chapter 5, we discuss the issues of our prototype of the mobile database. In chapter 3, we mention the whole architecture of this system; In chapter 4, we discuss the functions and structures of synchronization server. In chapter 5, we move to the design of the database system that resides in the mobile clients. This prototype system has an simple interface of application development. It also has a configurable replication strategy and adapt an advanced synchronization protocol.