A Failure Tolerating Atomic Commit Protocol for Mobile Environments

Abstract

In traditional fixed-wired networks, standard protocols like 2-Phase-Commit are used to guarantee atomicity for distributed transactions. However, within mobile networks, a higher probability of failures including node failures, message loss, and even network partitioning makes the use of these standard protocols difficult or even impossible. To use traditional database applications within a mobile scenario, we need an atomic commit protocol that reduces the chance of infinite blocking. In this paper, we present an atomic commit protocol called multi coordinator protocol (MCP) that uses a combination of the traditional 2-Phase-Commit, 3-Phase-Commit, and consensus protocols for mobile environments. Simulation experiments comparing MCP with 2PC show how MCP enhances stability for the coordination process by involving multiple coordinators, and that the additional time needed for the coordination among multiple coordinators is still reasonable.