Mobile Database

Written by:
Athra Sultan
Table of Contents
Abstract:...........................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction:.....................................................................................................................................................3
What is the Mobile database?..........................................................................................................................3
Need for Mobile Databases..........................................................................................................................4
Mobile database System Architecture...........................................................................................................4
Three parties................................................................................................................................................4
Some of the Mobile Relational Database Systems:...........................................................................................5
Model of Mobile Computing.............................................................................................................................6
Routing and Query Processing..........................................................................................................................7
Broadcast Data.................................................................................................................................................7
Disconnectivity and Consistency.......................................................................................................................8
Summary..........................................................................................................................................................8
References:.......................................................................................................................................................9
Abstract:
Mobile computing is increasingly becoming more and more popular as people need
information even on the move in this rapid changing information world. This paper attempts to
highlight the concepts and basic issues relating to mobile database.

Introduction:
Traditionally, large-scale commercial databases were developed as centralized database
systems. However, this trend changed as more and more distributed applications stated to emerge.
The distributed database applications involved usually a strong central database and powerful
network administration. However, the newer technology trends have changed this paradigm because
of the following technological trends:

 The notebook and laptop Computers are being used increasingly among the Business
Community

 The development and availability of a relatively low-cost wireless digital communication

infrastructure. This infrastructure is based on wireless local-area networks, cellular digital
packet networks, and other technologies

The rapid advancements of wireless communication technology and computer miniaturizing

technology have enabled users to utilize computing resources anywhere in the computer network.
For example, you can even connect to your Intranet from an aeroplane. Mobile database are the
database that allows the development and deployment of database applications for handheld
devices, thus, enabling relational database based applications in the hands of mobile workers. The
database technology allows employees using handheld to link to their corporate networks,
download data, work offline, and then connect to the network again to synchronise with the
corporate database. For example, with a mobile database embedded in a handheld device, a package
delivery worker can collect signatures after each delivery and send the information to a corporate
database at day's end.

What is the Mobile database?

A mobile database is a database than can be connected to by a mobile computing device
over a mobile network. The client and server have wireless connections. A cache is maintained to
hold frequent data and transactions so that they are not lost due to connection failure. A database is
a structured way to organize information. This could be a list of contacts, price information or
distance travelled.

The use of laptops, mobiles and PDAs is increasing and likely to increase in the future with
more and more applications residing in the mobile systems. While those same analysts can’t tell us
exactly which applications will be the most popular, it is clear that a large percentage will require
the use of a database of some sort. Many applications such as databases would require the ability to
download information from an information repository and operate on this information even when
out of range or disconnected.
 An example of this is a mobile workforce. In this scenario user would require to access and
update information from files in the home directories on a server or customer records from a
database. This type of access and work load generated by such users is different from the traditional
workloads seen in client server systems of today. With the advent of mobile databases, now users
can load up their smart phones or PDAs with mobile databases to exchange mission-critical data
remotely without worrying about time or distance. Mobile databases let employees enter data on the
fly. Information can be synchronized with a server database at a later time.

Need for Mobile Databases

 Mobile users must be able to work without a wireless connection due to poor or even non-
existent connections.
 Applications must provide significant interactivity.
 Applications must be able to access local device/vehicle hardware, such as printers, bar code
scanners, or GPS units (for mapping or Automatic Vehicle Location systems).
 Bandwidth must be conserved (a common requirement on wireless networks that charge per
megabyte or data transferred).
 Users don't require access to truly live data, only recently modified data.

If your application meets any of those requirements, the chances are good that you will be required
to build a mobile database application with synchronization.

Mobile database System Architecture

For any mobile architecture, things to be considered are

 Users are not attached to a fixed geographical location

 Mobile computing devices: low-power, low-cost, portable
 Wireless networks
 Mobile computing constraints

Three parties

Fixed hosts: Perform the transaction and data management functions with the help of database
servers

Mobile units: Portable computers, move around a geographical region that is a collection of mobile
cells

 Mobile hosts retains network connection through the support of base stations
 Role of mobile hosts depend on the capacity

Base stations: It is a two-way radio installation in a fixed location, used to communicate with one or
more mobile or portable radio transceivers. They are typically used by low-power two-way radios
such as mobile phones, portable phones and wireless routers
Capturing mobility by hand-off processes

 When a mobile unit leaves a mobile cell serviced by a base station, transfer the
responsibility for mobile transaction and data support to the new base station
 Transparent processes

Some of the Mobile Relational Database Systems:

The current database systems do not provide special facilities for specific update operations
in a mobile computing environment. Some of the commercially available Mobile relational
Database systems are:

IBM's DB2 Everywhere 1.0

Oracle Lite

Sybase's SQL

These databases work on Palm top and hand held devices (Windows CE devices) providing a local
data store for the relational data acquired from enterprise SQL databases. The main constraints for
such databases are relating to the size of the program as the handheld devices have RAM oriented
constraints. The commercially available mobile database systems allow wide variety of platforms
and data sources. They also allows users with handheld to synchronise with Open Database
Connectivity (ODBC) database content, and personal information management data and email from
Lotus Development's Notes or Microsoft's Exchange. These database technologies support either
query-by-example (QBE) or SQL statements.

Mobile computing has proved useful in many applications. Many business travelers are using laptop
computers to enable them to work and to access data while traveling. Delivery services may use/ are
using mobile computers to assist in tracking of delivery of goods. Emergency response services
may use/ are using mobile computers at the disasters sites, medical emergencies, etc. to access
information and to provide data pertaining to the situation. Newer applications of mobile computers
are also emerging.

One of the issue relating to wireless computing is that creates a situation where machines no longer
have fixed locations and network addresses. This may complicate query processing for the cases
where location plays a key role, since it becomes difficult to determine the optimal location at
which to materialize the result of a query. This may happen only for the cases where the location of
the user is a parameter of the query. For example, If a traveler information system provides data on
hotels, roadside services, etc. to motorists; queries about services that are ahead on the current route
must be processed based on knowledge of the user's location, direction of motion, and speed.

Another issue relating to mobile computing is the energy (battery power). It is a scarce resource for
mobile computers. This limitation influences many aspects of system design. Can we reduce the
requirements of data transfer for the sake of energy efficiency? Yes, by doing scheduled data
broadcasts, we may reduce the need for mobile systems to transmit queries.

But on the other side it will increase the amount of data residing on machines administered by users,
rather than by database administrators. In addition, these machines may, at times, be disconnected
from the network; thus, raising the question about the consistency of data

Model of Mobile Computing

The mobile-computing environment consists of mobile computers, which are referred to as
mobile hosts, and a wired network of computers. The communication between the Mobile hosts
and the wired network takes place through the computers referred to as mobile support stations. A
mobile support station manages the mobile hosts within its cell. But what is a cell? A cell is defined
as the geographical area covered by a mobile support station. Mobile hosts may move between
cells, thus, necessitating a transfer of control from one mobile support station to another. Since
mobile hosts may, at times, be powered down, a host may leave one cell and re-materialize later at
some distant cell. Therefore, moves between cells are not necessarily between adjacent cells. Within
a small area, such as a building, Mobile hosts may be connected by a wireless local-area network
within a small area, which may provide lower-cost connectivity than a wide-area cellular network.
This will also reduce the overhead of transfer of control.

It is possible for mobile hosts to communicate directly without the intervention of a mobile
support station. However, such communication can occur only between the nearby hosts.

The size and power limitations of many mobile computers have led to alterative memory
hierarchies. Flash memories may be used in such systems to save power. If the mobile host includes
a hard disk, the disk may be allowed to spin down when it is not in use, to save energy.
Routing and Query Processing
The mobile computing poses typical problems from the point of view of routing and query
processing. For example, as per the mobile-computing model, the route between a pair of hosts may
change over time, if one of the two hosts is mobile. This simple fact may have a dramatic effect at
the network level, since location-based network addresses are no longer constants within the
system. However, these networking issues are beyond the scope of this course.

The mobile-computing model also directly affects database query processing. In the case of
distributed query processing, the communication costs play important role in query optimization
process while selecting the best method of query evaluation strategy. Mobility results in
dynamically changing communication costs, therefore, complicate the optimization process.

Some of the anomalous factors, which need to be considered for mobile computing, are:

 User time is a highly valuable commodity in most of the business applications

 Connection time is the unit of monetary charges is assigned in most cellular systems,
therefore, should be minimum.
 Number of bytes, or packets, transferred is the unit of charges is computed in digital cellular
systems
 Time-of-day based charges may vary based on whether communication occurs during peak
or off-peak periods
 Energy is limited. Often, battery power is a scarce resource and should be optimized.

One of the basic principles of radio communication is that it requires less energy to receive
than to transmit radio signals. Thus, transmission and reception of data impose different power
demands on the mobile host.

Broadcast Data
It is often desirable for frequently requested data to be broadcast in a continuous cycle by
mobile support stations, rather than transmitted to mobile hosts on demand. A typical application of
broadcast data is stock-market price information. There are two reasons for using broadcast data:

 The mobile host does not have to invest on the energy cost for transmitting data requests
 The broadcast data can be received by a large number of mobile hosts in a single
transmission, at no extra cost, thus, ensures effective utilization of the available transmission
bandwidth.

Thus, the mobile hosts need to only receive data as and when those data are transmitted,
rather than consuming energy by transmitting a request. The mobile host may also have the local
nonvolatile storage for storing (cache) the broadcast data as and when received, for possible later
use. The mobile host may optimize energy costs by determining whether a given query may be
processed using only cached data. In case, the cached data is not found to be appropriate for the
query, then the mobile host may either may wait for the data to be broadcast, or transmit a request
for data. However, in order to make this decision, the mobile host must know when the relevant
data will be broadcast.

The broadcasting of data may be made according to a fixed schedule or a changeable schedule. If
the schedule of data transmission is fixed then the mobile host uses the known fixed schedule to
determine when the relevant data will be transmitted. In the data transmission schedule is
changeable then even the broadcast schedule may itself be broadcast at a well-known frequency and
time intervals.

In effect, the broadcast medium can be thought of as a disk with a high latency Requests for
data can be thought of as being serviced when the requested data are broadcast. The transmission
schedules behave like indices on the disk. This area is still evolving and research is still being
conducted on broadcast data issues.

Disconnectivity and Consistency

As one of the major cost involved in wireless communication, the connectivity cost, is paid
for on the basis of connection time, there is an incentive for certain mobile hosts to be disconnected
for substantial periods. However, during the time of disconnection, the user may still be working on
the host machine and may issue queries and updates on data on locally cached data. This situation
creates several problems of the following types:

Recoverability: Updates entered at the mobile host machine which is not connected may be lost if
the machine undergoes a major failure. This problem will result from the fact that only copy of
information is kept at local host and simulation of storage that takes care of failure will be difficult
to do.

Consistency: The locally cached data may become inconsistent, but the mobile host can discover
this fact only when it is reconnected. Similarly, the updates occurring in the mobile host cannot be
propagated until reconnection occurs. However, such updates must be propagated as and when the
mobile host reconnects. However, if the mobile host caches read-only copies of data, which is being
updated by other computers, the cached data may become inconsistent once a different machine
updates the value. In such cases on reconnection, the mobile host may be sent with invalidation
reports that may inform it about inconsistent cache entries. In case updates can occur at both the
mobile host and elsewhere, detecting conflicting updates become even more difficult. Details on
these issues are beyond the scope of this text.

Summary
We discussed about the basic requirements of mobile databases.

References:
 http://www.ignou.ac.in/virtualcampus/adit/course/cst302/block2/cst302-bl2-u1.htm

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_database