Processing distributed mobile queries with interleaved remote mobile joins

The query processing in a mobile computing environment involves join processing among different sites which include static servers and mobile computers. Because of the presence of asymmetric features in a mobile computing environment, the conventional query processing for a distributed database cannot be directly applied to a mobile computing system. In this paper, we first explore some unique features of a mobile environment and then, in light of these features, devise query processing methods for both join and query processing. Remote mobile joins are said to be effectual if they are, when being interleaved into a join sequence, able to reduce the amount of data transmission cost required for distributed mobile query processing. Since mobile relations are employed as reducers in our proposed query processing cost model, more mobile joins in the query processing lead to less data transmitted through the network. With proper scheduling, interleaving effectual remote mobile joins into a query scheduling can significantly reduce the total amount of data transmission among different sites. A simulator is developed to evaluate the performance of algorithms devised. Our results show that the approach of interleaving the processing of distributed mobile queries with effectual remote mobile joins is not only efficient, but also effective in reducing the total amount of data transmission cost required to process distributed mobile queries.