Heuristic Algorithm for Efficient Data Retrieval Scheduling in the Multichannel Wireless Broadcast Environments

Abstract

Wireless data broadcast is an efficient way of disseminating data to users in the mobile computing environments. From the server’s point of view, how to place the data items on channels is a crucial issue, with the objective of minimizing the average access time and tuning time. Similarly, how to schedule the data retrieval process for a given request at the client side such that all the requested items can be downloaded in a short time is also an important problem. In this paper, we investigate the multi-item data retrieval scheduling in the push-based multichannel broadcast environments. The most important issues in mobile computing are energy efficiency and query response efficiency. However, in data broadcast the objectives of reducing access latency and energy cost can be contradictive to each other. Consequently, we define a new problem named Minimum Cost Data Retrieval Problem (MCDR) and Large Number Data Retrieval (LNDR) Problem. We also develop a heuristic algorithm to download a large number of items efficiently. When there is no replicated item in a broadcast cycle, we show that an optimal retrieval schedule can be obtained in polynomial time.