Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Transaction-Centric Reconciliation in Disconnected Client–Server Databases

  • Published:
Mobile Networks and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

As mobile computing devices become more and more common, mobile databases are becoming popular. An important feature of these database systems is their ability to allow optimistic replication of data by providing disconnected mobile devices the ability to perform local updates. The key problem to this approach is the reconciliation problem, i.e. the problem of serializing potentially conflicting updates from disconnected clients on all replicas of the database. Reconciliation of conflicting updates is especially critical for disconnected databases where disconnected updates are allowed. We examine some choices for providing solutions to the reconciliation problem. We then present an algorithm that combines multiversion concurrency control schemes on a server with reconciliation of updates from disconnected clients. We also describe a simple but illustrative sample application. Finally we present our conclusions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. D. Agrawal and V. Krishnamurthy, Using multiversion data for non-interfering execution of write-only transactions, in: Proceedings of the ACM SIGMOD Conference (1991) pp. 98–107.

  2. D. Agrawal and S. Sengupta, Modular synchronization in multiversion databases: Version control and concurrency control, in: Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD Conference (1989) pp. 408–417.

  3. R. Alonso and H.F. Korth, Database system issues in nomadic computing, in: Proceedings of the ACM SIGMOD (June 1993) pp. 388–392.

  4. B.R. Badrinath and S.H. Phatak, Database server organization for handling mobile clients, Department of Computer Science Technical Report DCS-TR-324 (1997).

  5. B.R. Badrinath and S.H. Phatak, An architecture for mobile databases, Department of Computer Science Technical Report DCS-TR-351 (1998).

  6. B.R. Badrinath and K. Ramamritham, Semantics-based concurrency control: Beyond commutativity, ACM Transactions on Database Systems 17(1) 163–199.

  7. H. Berenson, P.A. Bernstein, J. Gray, J. Melton, E.J. O'Neil and P.E. O'Neil, A critique of ansi sql isolation levels, in: Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD Conference (1995) pp. 1–10.

  8. P.A. Bernstein and N. Goodman, Concurrency control in distributed database systems, ACM Computing Surveys 13(2) (1981) 185–221.

    Google Scholar 

  9. S. Ceri and G. Pelagatti, Distributed Databases — Principles and Systems (McGraw-Hill, 1984).

  10. P. Chrysanthis, Transaction processing in mobile computing environment, in: IEEE Workshop on Advances in Parallel and Distributed Systems (October 1993) pp. 77–82.

  11. S.B. Davidson, Optimism and consistency in partitioned distributed database systems, ACM Transactions on Database Systems 9(3) (1984) 456–481.

    Google Scholar 

  12. A. Demers, K. Petersen, M. Spreitzer, D. Terry, M. Theimer and B. Welch, The bayou architecture: Support for data sharing among mobile users, in: Proceedings of the IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (December 1994) pp. 2–7.

  13. R.H. Frenkiel and T. Imieliński, Infostations: The joy of many-time many-where communications, WINLAB Technical Report, Vol. 119 (April 1996).

  14. D. Goodman, J. Borrás, N.B. Mandayam and R.D. Yates, Infostations: A new system model for data and messaging services, in: Proceedings of IEEE VTC (May 1997).

  15. J. Gray, P. Helland, P.E. O'Neil and D. Shasha, The dangers of replication and a solution, in: Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD (June 1996) pp. 173–182.

  16. J. Gray and A. Reuter, Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques (Morgan-Kaufmann, 1993).

  17. T. Imieliński and B.R. Badrinath, Mobile wireless computing: Challenges in data management, Communications of the ACM 37(10) (1994) 18–28.

    Google Scholar 

  18. R. Katz and S. Weiss, Design transaction management, in: Proceedings of the 21st Design Automation Conference (1984) pp. 692–693.

  19. N. Krishnakumar and R. Jain, Mobile support for sales and inventory applications.

  20. G. Kuenning and G.J. Popek, Automated hoarding for mobile computers, in: Proceedings of the 16th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (October 1997).

  21. G. Kuenning, G.J. Popek and P. Reiher, An analysis of trace data for predictive file caching in mobile computing, in: Proceedings of the USENIX Summer Conference (1994) pp. 291–303.

  22. P. Kumar and M. Satyanarayanan, Supporting application-specific resolution in an optimistically replicated file system, in: Proceedings of the 4th IEEE Workshop on Workstation Operating Systems (October 1993) pp. 66–70.

  23. H.T. Kung and J.T. Robinson, On optimistic methods of concurrency control, ACM Transactions on Database System 6(2) (1981) 213–226.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Q. Lu and M. Satyanarayanan, Isolation-only transaction for mobile computing, Operating Systems Review 28(2) (1981) 81–87.

    Google Scholar 

  25. L.B. Mummert, M.R. Ebling and M. Satyanarayanan, Exploiting weak connectivity for mobile file access, in: Proceedings of the 15th ACM Symposium on Operating System Principles (December 1995) pp. 143–155.

  26. P.E. O'Neil, The escrow transactional method, ACM Transactions on Database Systems 11(4) (1986) 405–430.

    Google Scholar 

  27. P.E. O'Neil, Database — Principles, Programming, and Performance (Morgan-Kaufmann, 1994).

  28. M.T. Ozsu and P. Valduriez, Principles of Distributed Database Systems (Prentice Hall, 1991).

  29. S.H. Phatak and B.R. Badrinath, Conflict resolution and reconciliation in disconnected databases, in: Proceedings of MDDS 1999 (September 1999).

  30. S.H. Phatak and B.R. Badrinath, Multiversion reconciliation for mobile databases, in: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Data Engineering (March 1999) pp. 582–589.

  31. M. Satyanarayanan, Coda: A highly available file system for a distributed workstation environment, in: Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE Workshop on Workstation Operating Systems (September 1989) pp. 447–459.

  32. A. Silberschatz, H. Korth and S. Sudarshan, Database System Concepts (McGraw-Hill, 1997).

  33. D.B. Terry, A.J. Demers, K. Petersen, M.J. Spreitzer, M.M. Theimer and B.B. Welch, Session guarantees for weakly consistent replicated data, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Information Systems (September 1994) pp. 140–149.

  34. G. Walborn and P. Chrysanthis, Supporting semantics-based transaction processing in mobile database systems, in: Proceedings of the 14th Symposium on Reliable Database Systems (September 1995).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Shirish Hemant Phatak & Badri Nath

Authors
  1. Shirish Hemant Phatak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Badri Nath
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Phatak, S.H., Nath, B. Transaction-Centric Reconciliation in Disconnected Client–Server Databases. Mobile Networks and Applications 9, 459–471 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:MONE.0000034700.03069.48

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:MONE.0000034700.03069.48

Search

Navigation