Mobile Computing:

Introduction
Unit 1
 Syllabus
Mod Content Hrs
Introduction to Mobile Communications and Computing: Introduction to
Mobile Computing, novel applications, limitations, and architecture - GSM Mobile
services, System architecture, Radio interface, Protocols, Localization and calling,
Handover, Security, and New data services.
Introduction to wireless communication: Evolution of mobile communications,
I mobile radio systems- Examples, trends in cellular radio and personal 20
communications. Cellular Concept: Frequency reuse, channel assignment, hand off,
Interference and system capacity, tracking and grade of service, Improving
Coverage and capacity in Cellular systems. Wireless radio propagation:
Free space propagation model, reflection, diffraction, scattering, link budget design,
Outdoor Propagation models, Indoor propagation models.
Wireless radio propagation: Small scale Multipath propagation, Impulse model,
Small scale Multipath measurements, parameters of Mobile multipath channels,
types of small scale fading, statistical models for multipath fading channels.,
Interference, DSSS, FHSS.
II Medium access control: (Wireless) Medium Access Control: Motivation for a 20
specialized MAC (Hidden and exposed terminals, Near and far terminals), SDMA,
FDMA, TDMA, CDMA.
Wireless LAN standards: Wireless LAN, IEEE 802.11, Architecture, services MAC
Physical layer, IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b standards, HIPERLAN, Bluetooth.
 Natural Evolution of Computing

More LANs + WSs Mobile Computing

Flexible
Resource Timesharing Networking
Usage
Single
User OS
Batch

Freedom from Collocation

 Why Mobile Computing ?

• People are mobile

• Devices are mobile
 What is Mobility?
• A person who moves
– Between different geographical locations
– Between different networks
– Between different communication devices
– Between different applications
• A device that moves
– Between different geographical locations
– Between different networks
 Computing & Computation
• Mobile Computing
– When User is Mobile
• Mobile Computation
– When Computation is Mobile
 What is Mobile Computing?
• The provision and utilization of a computing
environment that a user can access and use (such
as to communicate and to access remote
information and services) anywhere and anytime
 Mobile Computing: What is not
mobile computing?
• Activity using mobile phones from anywhere
in the world is not called Mobile computing -
because there is no computing (data
processing) involved
• Dragging around a laptop and working with it
without being able to set up a connection to
the “home base” through a computer
network is not Mobile computing
 Mobile Computing: What mobile
computing requires?
• Does Mobile computing require some devices to
be dragged around by the people?
Not necessarily, an infrastructure with suitable
access devices could be offered to traveling
people - in the same manner as telephones are
offered in hotels, airports, etc.
 Mobile devices
Laptop
PDA • fully functional
Pager •graphical displays
• standard applications
• tiny displays • character recognition
•receive only • simplified WWW
simple text
messages
Sensors,
embedded
controllers

Mobile phones Palmtop

• voice, data • tiny keyboard
• simple text displays • simple versions
of standard applications

performance
 Mobile Applications - 1
• Vehicles
– Transmission of news, road condition etc
– Ad-hoc network with near vehicles to prevent
accidents
• Emergencies
– Early transmission of patient data to the
hospital
– Ad-hoc network in case of earthquakes
– Military
 Mobile Applications - 2
• Travelling salesmen
– Direct access to central customer files
– Consistent databases for all agents
– Mobile office
• Web access
– Outdoor Internet access
– Intelligent travel guide with up-to-date
location dependent information
 Mobile Applications - 3
• Location aware services
– Find services in the local environment, e.g.
printer
– Nearest cash ATM
• Information services
– Stock quotes
 Issues
• Mobility
– Configuration
– Location management
– Heterogeneity
– Security and authentication
– Hidden & Exposed terminal
• Wireless Medium
– Weak and Intermittent Connectivity
– Variant Connectivity
– Broadcast Facility
 Issues
• Portability of Mobile Elements
 Mobility
• The location of mobile elements and therefore
their point of attachment to the fixed network
change as they move
• Mobility of nodes
– Loss of connectivity
– Network partitioning;
– Bit errors.
 Configuration
• The configuration of a system that includes mobile
elements is not static.
– In designing distributed algorithms, we can no
more rely on a fixed topology.
– The center of activity, the system load, and
locality change dynamically.
 Location management
• The search cost to locate mobile elements is added
to the cost of each communication involving them.
• Efficient data structures, algorithms, and query
execution plans must be devised for representing,
managing, and querying the location of mobile
elements, which is a fast changing data
 Heterogeneity
• Connectivity becomes highly variant in
performance and reliability.
• The number of devices in a network cell changes
with time, and so do both the load at the base
station and bandwidth availability.
• There may be also variability in the provision of
specific services, such as in the type of available
printers or weather reports.
• The resources available to a mobile element vary
 Security & Authentication
• Security is a major concern in context to mobility.
• Authenticating the identity of a user, process, or
device, often as a prerequisite to allowing access to
resources in an information system.
 Hidden & Exposed Terminal
• Hidden terminal problem: Two nodes that are
outside each-other's range perform
simultaneous transmission to a node that is
within the range of each of them, which may
result into packet collision.
• Exposed terminal problem: The node is within
the range of a node that is transmitting, and it
cannot transmit to any node.
 Wireless Medium
• Wireless networks are more expensive, offer less
bandwidth, and are less reliable than wire-line
networks.
• Wireless communications face many obstacles
because the surrounding environment interacts
with the signal
• Bandwidth is a scarce resource
• Data transmission over the air is currently
monetarily expensive
 Variant Connectivity
• Wireless technologies vary on the degree of
bandwidth and reliability they provide.
 Broadcast Facility
• There is a high bandwidth broadcast channel from
the base station to all mobile clients in its cell.
 Portability of Mobile Elements
• Mobile elements are resource poor when
compared to static elements
• Mobile elements rely on battery.
• Mobile elements are easier to be accidentally
damaged, stolen, or lost.
 Network Disconnections
• Voluntary or forced
• Predictable or sudden.
• Short disconnections and long
• Disconnected operation
 Characteristics of mobile
communications
• Limited resources
• Limited memory
• Limited computational power
• Small screen
• Limited battery life
• Relatively unreliable
• Variability in resources
• Frequent location updates