Mobile Computing

Dr. Mohammed Fadhil

INTRODUCTION TO MOBILE COMPUTING
Mobile Computing is the process of executing computations on a mobile device
and transmission of data to and from one or more devices. It is the technique
of getting connected and making use of centrally located information and
application software with the deployment of small, portable wireless
communication and computing devices.
WHAT IS THIS COURSE ABOUT?
 Discussed several challenges in building solutions for mobile devices.
 Different operating systems used in mobile devices.
 Various applications of mobile computing.
Mobile communication and networks
Wireless Communications Networks I and II (Third Year)
Antennas and Wave Propagation (Third Year)
 Mobile Communications I and II (Forth Year)

The main focus of this course is to understand the challenges and

limitations that mobile devices have and how new technologies such as
cloud computing help to overcome those constraints.
 MOBILE DEVICE
A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computing device
small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Typically, any
handheld computer device will have an LCD flatscreen interface,
providing a touchscreen interface with digital buttons and
keyboard or physical buttons along with a physical keyboard.
Many such devices can connect to the Internet and interconnect with
other devices such as car entertainment systems
or headsets via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular networks or near field
communication (NFC).
Integrated cameras, digital media players, the ability to place
and receive telephone calls, video games, and Global Positioning
System (GPS) capabilities are common. Power is typically provided
by a lithium battery. Mobile devices may run mobile operating
systems that allow third-party apps specialized for said
capabilities to be installed and run.
 MOBILE DEVICE
o Early smartphones were joined in the late 2000s by larger, but otherwise essentially the
same, tablets. Input and output is now usually via a touch-screen
interface. Phones/tablets and personal digital assistants may provide much of the
functionality of a laptop/desktop computer but more conveniently, in addition to exclusive
features. Enterprise digital assistants can provide additional business functionality such as
integrated data capture via barcode, RFID and smart card readers.
‫التسارع‬ ‫اداة تحديد اإل تجاه‬
o By 2010, mobile devices often contained sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes,
allowing detection of orientation and motion.
o Mobile devices may provide biometric user authentication such as face
recognition or fingerprint recognition.
o Major global manufacturers of mobile devices
include Apple, Samsung, Sony, Google, HTC, LG, Motorola Mobility and Nokia .
CHALLENGES OF MOBILE COMPUTING
The current smartphone user base already has reached the 1
billion mark. So, computing through mobile devices has become a
more feasible concept than the conventional approach. But still
some drawbacks such as lack of storage, computational power,
and limited battery life of mobile devices have become the
challenges for MC technology.
MOBILE DRAWBACKS/CHALLENGES/LIMITATIONS
1. Wireless communication 3. Resource limitation
a. Network disconnection  a. Data storage
 b. Network bandwidth  b. Power consumption
 c. Network optimization for confined areas with high
user concentration 4. And More …
2. Mobility
 a. Changing network address
 b. Locality migration
 c. Location management
 d. Mobile network traffic forecasting
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
Mobile devices have either wired or wireless communication with the Internet. When
‫ثابت‬
the mobile device is stationary, wired communication provides cheaper and better
Internet access. But due to mobility, these devices need wireless communication too.
Wireless communication comes with several disadvantages such as frequent
disconnection due to network error, low bandwidth accessibility, and the varied network
conditions. Moreover, security of wireless communication is more vulnerable than wired
communication.

 Disconnection Network failure can result in disconnection of mobile devices, which

‫أعاق‬
affects the quality of service and obstruct the quality of experience by the mobile
users. Methods involved in the prevention of network disconnection involve spending
more on extra resources to deal with the disconnection scenario effectively.
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
 Low Bandwidth : Wireless networks provide lower bandwidths compared to wired
networks. Mobile communication is greatly sensitive to low bandwidth. The bandwidth
that can be delivered to each user depends on the number of users sharing a cell. For
improving network capacity, techniques such as data compression, splitting large files
into smaller ones, pre-fetching and write-back caching are commonly used.
‫غير حصين‬
 Security Issues : Wireless communication is more vulnerable to the risk of security
dangers due to the ease of breaking into the wireless links.
MOBILITY
Mobile devices are able to change locations unlike static devices. The risk of information
loss increases with mobility. For example changing Network Address As their location
changes, mobile devices use different access points and different addresses. When in
active mode, devices cannot be moved to a new address. The address for a host name is
‫تقديم‬ ‫التحقق من صحة‬
cached in the system memory for a long time without the provision of validating the data
‫المضمنة‬
stored. In the IP, for example, a host name is embedded with its network address. Thus,
changing the location means acquiring a new IP name. Some methods for solving address
migration such as broadcasting and central service.
 RESOURCE LIMITATION |DATA STORAGE
Data Storage: The memory of mobile devices is finite. Thus, these devices
are not capable of storing an unlimited volume of information. This is a
major constraint of the mobile devices because, with the increasing usage
of mobile devices, the need to store various data in the device memory
also increases. Solutions proposed for handling this shortcoming includes
offloading the storage to some other device as facilitated by cloud
computing, or, more specifically, mobile cloud computing.
RESOURCE LIMITATION | POWER CONSUMPTION
Power Consumption In the absence of any power point or portable generator, mobile devices
rely on battery power for functioning. Battery is one of the main alarms for mobile devices.
Quite a few solutions have been proposed to enhance the CPU performance and to manage the
disk and screen in an efficient manner to reduce power consumption. However, these solutions
require changes in the structure of mobile devices, or they require new hardware, which results in
an increase of cost and may not be feasible for all mobile devices. The computation offloading
technique is proposed to migrate large computations and complex processing from resource-
limited mobile devices to resource-rich cloud servers. This avoids lengthy application executions
on mobile devices that consume a large amount of power.
Solution for mobile
limited power, computing
and storage is cloud.