Introduction to

Mobile Computing
DR. TUHINA SAMANTA
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

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Mobile Computing (IT4267)
1. Introduction to mobile computing
2. Evolution of different generations of wireless technology
3. CDMA
4. Wireless LAN
5. Mobile ad-hoc network
6. Mobile IP
7. Future generation wireless networks

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Books:

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Introduction to Mobility
• Physical entity
• Small computing units
•Logical entity
• Running user application (process)
• Moves between local clusters
• Process migration
• Flexibility and reliability

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Mobile Computing
• Helps in continuous access of remote resource
• Independent of the state of the user
• VLSI technology facilitates the progress of mobile
computing

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Challenges in Mobility
• Issues in physical mobility
• Weak connectivity
• Wireless connectivity
• Ubiquitous computing

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Physical Mobility
•Macro mobility:
• Mobility through global network
• Mobile IP is introduced
•Micro mobility
• Within a local administrative block
• Cellular IP protocol is introduced
•Ad-hoc mobility
• MANET architecture
• Mobile users change topology constantly

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Mobile Agent
• Acts like a docking station, may work on top of JVM
• A program moving through a network and autonomously
executing tasks for users
• Unlike applet, mobile agent carry data and thread of
control
• Aids in e-commerce, software distribution, information
retrieval, network management

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Advantages/Disadvantages
• Very small, compact and light weight mobile computer
• Less power consumption and large battery life
• Higher reliability of data
• The performance highly dependent upon network and
wireless channel conditions.

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Technical Issues in Mobility
• Security
• authentication, data integrity, prevention of DoS
• Reliability
• availability of resource in disconnection
• Naming and location
• controlling a mobile entity

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Wireless medium
•Disconnection
• Common in radio environments - due to noise.
• due to moving into dark areas
• Blocking by servers e.g., due to too many requests to a file server.
• Standalone mobile computer can tolerate this kind of problem better
• Portable terminals will not function
• Pre-fetching / lazy write back decouples communication from data usage/
generation
• Decoupling allows the program to progress even during disconnection

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Coda File System
• Coda - distributed file system, developed for notebook
computers with less frequent disconnections
• It has been developed at Carnegie Mellon University since
1987
• On board cache
• Users’ profile is used to keep best selection of files in the
cache
• Whole files are cached instead of fixed block of data

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Coda File System
• After disconnection, the cache is automatically
synchronized with file server
• File modification are allowed even during disconnection
• Bandwidth adaptation
• Scalability and security

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Personal Communication Systems (PCS)
• Objective is to enable communication with a person at any time, at any place and in
any form
• A singe personal telecommunication number (PTN)
• Based on second generation technology like GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communication); according to the definition given by the US Federal Communications
Commission (FCC)
• Key factors of PCS are:
• Reachability with respect to Location (Home, office, in public, in transit)
• Accessibility with respect to Device (Cellular phone, wired phone, fax)
• Management of Service
• Architecture:
• Radio network
• Wireline transport network

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PCS Network Architecture

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Cellular Communication
A Basic Cellular network has following components:
1. Mobile Unit
2. Cell Site (Base Station)
3. MTSO (Mobile Telephone Switching Office)
4. System interconnects
5. Communication protocol

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Generation of Cellular Communication

AMPS
NMT GSM WCDMA
TACS GPRS CDMA2000
HCMTS TD SCDMA

1G 2G 3G
PCS is classified as a 2.5 generation

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Evolution of Cellular Networks
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1G 2G 2.5G 3G 4G
Future generation Cellular Communication
• To carry mobile multimedia communication
• Some of the proposed features of 4G systems include
• High bandwidth, ubiquity (connectivity everywhere)
• Seamless integration with wired networks (especially IP)
• Adaptive resource and spectrum management
• Software radio, besides high quality of multimedia service
• 5G is the fifth generation technology giving higher download
speeds, eventually up to 10 gigabits per second

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LTE Key Features
• Uses Multi-input Multi-output (MIMO) for enhanced throughput
• Reduced power consumption
• Higher RF power amplifier efficiency (less battery power used by
handsets)
• Lower latency to get access to the medium
• Performance sometimes better than WiFi

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