You might have noticed the ever-increasing demands on mobile computing for providing the types of support required by a growing number of mobile workers and its technology. Such individuals require working as if they are in the office, but in reality, they are working from remote corners of different locations of any particular area, including homes, clients' premises, or simply while routing to remote locations. The 'office' may come with a remote worker in the form of a laptop or desktop, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), or other device accessing the Internet. With the rapid growth of cellular technology, wireless medium, and satellite communications, it will soon be achievable for mobile users to access any data from anywhere at any time. However, business etiquette, practicalities, security, and costs may still bound communication such that it is not achievable for establishing online connections for as long as users want, whenever they want. Mobile databases offer a solution to some of these restrictions or problems.



What is Mobile Database?

Mobile Database is a database that is transportable, portable, and physically separate or detached from the corporate database server but has the capability to communicate with those servers from remote sites allowing the sharing of various kinds of data.

With mobile databases, users have access to corporate data on their laptop, PDA, or other Internet access device that is required for applications at remote sites.

The components of a mobile database environment include:

  • Corporate database server and DBMS that deals with and stores the corporate data and provides corporate applications
  • Remote database and DBMS usually manages and stores the mobile data and provides mobile applications
  • mobile database platform that includes a laptop, PDA, or other Internet access devices
  • Two-way communication links between corporate and mobile DBMS.

Based on the particular necessities of mobile applications, in many of the cases, the user might use a mobile device may and log on to any corporate database server and work with data there. In contrast, in others, the user may download data and work with it on a mobile device or upload data captured at the remote site to the corporate database. The communication between the corporate and mobile databases is usually discontinuous and is typically established or gets its connection for a short duration of time at irregular intervals. Although unusual, some applications require direct communication between mobile databases. The two main issues associated with mobile databases are the management of the mobile database and the communication between the mobile and corporate databases. In the following section, we identify the requirements of mobile DBMSs.

The additional functionality required for mobile DBMSs includes the capability to:

  • communicate with the centralized or primary database server through modes
  • repeat those data on the centralized database server and mobile device
  • coordinate data on the centralized database server and mobile device
  • capture data from a range of sources such as the Internet
  • deal with those data on the mobile device
  • analyze those data on a mobile device
  • create customized and personalized mobile applications


Found This Page Useful? Share It!
Get the Latest Tutorials and Updates
Join us on Telegram