SOM: dynamic push-pull channel allocation framework for mobile data broadcasting

In a mobile computing environment, the combined use of broadcast and on-demand channels can utilize the bandwidth effectively for data dissemination. We explore in this paper the problem of dynamic data and channel allocation with the number of communication channels and the number of data items given. We first derive the analytical models of the average access time when the data items are requested through the broadcast and on-demand channels. Then, we transform this problem into a guided search problem. In light of the theoretical properties derived, we devise algorithm SOM to obtain the optimal allocation of data and channels. Algorithm SOM is a composite algorithm which will cooperate with 1) a search strategy and 2) a broadcast program generation algorithm. According to the analytical mode, we devise scheme BIS-incremental on the basis of algorithm SOM, which is able to obtain solutions of high quality efficiently by employing binary interpolation search. In essence, scheme BIS-incremental is guided to explore the search space with higher likelihood to be the optimal first, thereby leading to an efficient and effective search. It is shown by our simulation results that the solution obtained by scheme BIS-incremental is of very high quality and is in fact very close to the optimal one. A sensitivity study on several parameters, including the number of data items and the number of communication channels, is conducted. The experimental results show that scheme BIS-incremental is of very good scalability, which is particularly important for its practical use in a mobile computing environment.