Client-Server Computing

in Mobile Environments

Presenter : Rohan A. Bairat

2
Mobile Computing and Issues
in Client-Server Environment
 Mobile Computing a new Paradigm
 Issues
 Mobility of Users and their computers
 Mobile Resource constraints
 Wireless Bandwidth
 Limited Battery Life

3
Paradigms of Mobile Client-
Server Computing
 Mobile Aware Adaptation
 Response to change in environment
 Necessary system services that can be utilized
 Extended Client-Server Model
 Various Architectures that enables functional
participation of applications between client and
servers
 Mobile data Access
 Deals with issues like data transfer and consistency of
Client cache

4
Mobile-Aware Adaptation
 Dynamically adjusting the functionality
between the mobile and stationary host to
cater changes like
 Variations and changes in Network Conditions
 Local resource availability
 Computations of Clients and Servers should
be adaptive in response to change in mobile
environment.

5
Mobile-Aware Adaptation
 Application Transparent Adaptation
 Applications work with no modification in mobile
environment
 System shield or proxy is provided which hides
the differences between the stationary and mobile
environments from Applications
 The proxy / System shield mitigates to the change
in environment and the change is transparent to
the applications.

6
Application Transparent
Adaptation
 E.G. File System Proxy (CODA)
 File System Proxy hides mobile issues from applications and
emulate file server services on the mobile device.
 Proxy Log
 Concurrency control after reconnection
 Three phases
 Hoarding
 Server Files pre-fetched into Mobile Computers
 Emulating
 Upon Disconnection updates are logged
 Log optimization is done to improve performance
 Reintegrating
 Synchronizes cache with the server

7
Application Transparent
Adaptation
 Drawbacks of this approach

 Performance is an issue

 It may be sometimes very hard for the system

8
Application-Aware Adaptation
 Allows Applications or their extensions to
react to mobile resource changes
 How?
 Collaboration between System and individual
Applications
 System monitors resource levels and notifies
applications of relevant changes
 Application then adapts to the change

9
Application-Aware Adaptation
 It can be divided into three different
categories

 Client- based Application adaptation

10
Client- based Application
Adaptation
 In the Collaborative adaptation ,System
provides mechanisms of adaptation, while
applications are free to specify adaptation
policy
 Application changes or adaptation is done
only on client side

11
Client-Server Application
Adaptation
 The Rover toolkit supports the application aware
adaptation through the use of RDO
http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/rover/
 RDOs are relocatable dynamic objects
 RDOs are defined for the data types manipulated by
the application and for the data transported between
client and server
 Programmers Task
 Benefits to Application Designers
 Application designers have semantic knowledge
 Can tightly couple data with program code and manage
resources

12
Proxy-Based Application
Adaptation
 The application specific proxy has been
proposed as an intermediary between client
and server
 It performs storage intensive and
computation intensive tasks
 Proxy reduces Bandwidth demands and allow
legacy and non standard client to
communicate with the server

13
Extended Client-Server Model
 Classic client-server systems assume that
the location of client and server hosts do not
change and also the connection among them
does not change
 Functionality between client and server is
statically partitioned
 Extended Client server Architecture thus
deals with these inconsistencies in network
connections and location specifics
14
Extended Client-Server Model
 Thin client architecture

 Full client architecture

 Flexible client architecture

15
Thin client architecture

16
Full-Client Architecture
 Can support disconnected or weakly
connected client
 The full client architecture supports
emulations of functions of server at client
host
 Light weight servers or proxy
 E.G CODA , WebExpress

17
Flexible Client-Server
Architecture
 Generalizes both thin
client and full client
architecture
 Connection between
client and server can be
dynamically established

18
Mobile Objects
 Programming entities that can freely roam the
network
 Mobile objects allow clients to download the
server code to mobile host for execution
 They can maintain state information and
make intelligent decisions
 Challenge in using mobile objects?
 Frequently disconnected or weak environment

19
Collaborative Groups
 Division of members into groups
 Members can access data for the group
 A client is able to access data residing on
server to which it is communicating and
conversely any machine holding the copy of
the database, including personal laptop,
should be willing to server read and write
requests from nearby machines
 E.G Bayou system
20
Flexible Client-Server
Architecture
 Application specific proxy
 Proxy acts an intermediary between clients and
server
 Allows legacy and other non-standard clients to
interoperate with existing servers
 Virtual mobility of servers
 Achieved by replication

21
Mobile Data Access
 Mobile data access enables the delivery of server
data and the maintenance of client-server data
 Data Access strategies in mobile environment can
be characterized by
 Data delivery
 Data organization
 Consistency requirement
 Server Data Delivery Modes
 Client –pull
 Server-push
 Hybrid delivery
22
Server Data Dissemination
 Asymmetrical communication between clients
and server
 Scalability problems for applications with
asymmetrical communication
 Solution: Broadcast –based dissemination
 Broadcast disk
 Indexing on air
 Increases query time
 Decreases Listening time
23
Client Cache Management
 Caching reduces contention and improves
query response time
 Cache data can support disconnected
operations
 Automated Hoarding
 Varied Granularity of Cache coherence
 Callback Approach
 Detection Approach

24
Thank you

Rohan A. Bairat