A File Migration Scheme for Reducing File Access Latency in Mobile Computing Environments

Abstract

In mobile computing environment, mobile support station provides a wireless communication link to mobile clients and help them to access remote file servers that reside on a fixed network. Mobile hosts send requests to the mobile support station to access files on remote file servers. No longer this environment requires a user to stay at a fixed position in the network and enables almost unrestricted user mobility. The user mobility affects the file access latency. Mobile hosts have severe resource constraints in terms of limited size of non-volatile storage, and the burden of computation and communication load raises file access latency. In this paper, we propose a scheme for reducing the file access latency by using file migration scheme. We develope an on-demand file migration scheme which determines when the file server should migrate files to another server, and when it should transfer files to mobile hosts. Using simulation, we examine the effects of the parameters such as file access frequency, file size, and mobility rate on the file system performance. We present simulation results, providing useful insight into file system latency.