Data Management for Mobile Computing-Exploratory Research Proposal

SGER: Data Management for Mobile Computing The rapidly expanding technology of cellular communications will give mobile users capability of accessing information anytime and anywhere. It is expected that in the near future, millions of people in the U.S. alone will carry a lightweight, inexpensive terminal (such as the personal communicator recently announced by AT&T and EO or Apple's Newton) with wireless connection to the worldwide information network. Mobile computing poses new challenges to the data management community. How will the mobility of users affect data placement, query and transaction processing? What is the role of wireless medium in distribution of information? How can one query data broadcast over the wireless? What is the influence of limited battery life on data access from a mobile palmtop terminal? How should prolonged periods of disconnection of the mobile machines be handled? The primary objective of this exploratory research is to provide preliminary solutions to the above problems and identify which of them are technically the most challenging and for which of them solutions can be provided by minor extensions of current technology. In particular, the following problems are being investigated: (1) locating users; (2) querying location dependent data; (3) handling frequent disconnection; and (4) replicating information and services to provide information from anywhere and at anytime. Further, a possible prototype of a system for wireless broadcasting of information to a large number of users is also being developed.