An Enhanced MSS-based Checkpointing Scheme for Mobile Computing Environment

Mobile computing systems are made up of different components among which Mobile Support Stations (MSSs) play a key role. This paper proposes an efficient MSS-based non-blocking coordinated checkpointing scheme for mobile computing environment. In the scheme suggested nearly all aspects of checkpointing and their related overheads are forwarded to the MSSs and as a result the workload of Mobile Hosts (MHs) will reduce substantially. Moreover, the total amount of exchanging checkpoint requests will be decreased in order to have a batch transmission of such requests. The scheme is also enhanced using a simple data structure to have fewer propagating checkpoint requests and avoid the avalanche effect in the system. Simulation results show that compared to other existing algorithms, in the proposed scheme the average number of propagating requests and checkpoints, the average elapsed time for each checkpointing process, and the size of system messages are significantly lower and smaller, respectively. Thus considering its distinguishing features, the proposed approach would be efficient and suitable for mobile computing environment.