Channel allocation methods for data dissemination in mobile computing environments

Abstract

We discuss several channel allocation methods for data dissemination in mobile computing systems. We suggest that the broadcast and on-demand channels have different access performance under different system parameters and that a mobile cell should use a combination of both to obtain optimal access time for a given workload and system parameters. We study the data access efficiency of three channel configurations: all channels are used as on-demand channels (exclusive on-demand); all channels are used for broadcast (exclusive broadcast); and some channels are on-demand channels and some are broadcast channels (hybrid). Simulations on obtaining the optimal channel allocation for lightly-loaded, medium-loaded, and heavy-loaded conditions is conducted and the result shows that an optimal channel allocation significantly improves the system performance.