Broadcasting four types of reports to read only transactions in mobile computing environments

Abstract

PurposeRecently the advances in wireless communication technology and the popularity of portable computers have rendered mobile computing environments from which mobile users with battery‐operated palmtops can access the information via wireless channels, without space and time restriction. In mobile computing environments, mobile users cache the data items to use the bandwidth efficiently and improve the response time of mobile transactions. If the data items cached in mobile users are updated at the server, the server broadcasts an invalidation report for maintaining the cache consistency of mobile users. However, this method has an obstacle that does not guarantee the serializable execution of mobile transactions. The purpose of this paper is to propose the four types of reports for mobile transaction (FTR‐MT) method for ensuring the serializable execution of mobile transactions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the FTR‐MT method, which is composed of four types of algorithms, e.g. group report composition algorithm, immediate commit decision algorithm, cache consistency algorithm, and disconnection cache consistency algorithm. FTR‐MT method for improving the response time of mobile transactions makes a commit decision by using the four types of reports.FindingsWith the FTR‐MT method, mobile users can make a commit decision by using the four types of reports. The response time of mobile transactions can be reduced. Furthermore, the FTR‐MT method can improve the cache efficiency in the case that the disconnection of mobile users is longer than the broadcast interval of the window report.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a new method for guaranteeing the serializable execution of mobile transactions, called FTR‐MT, using four types of reports. Also, it can prevent the entire cache dropping, even though the disconnection of a mobile host is longer than the broadcast interval of a window report. Through the analytical model, this method is felt to be superior to other methods, in terms of the average response time and the commit rate of mobile transactions, and bandwidth usage.