A Database Synchronization Algorithm for Mobile Devices

Abstract

This paper proposes an SAMD (Synchronization Algorithms based on Message Digest) algorithm based on message digest in order to facilitate data synchronization between a server-side database and a mobile database. The SAMD algorithm makes the images at the server-side database and the mobile database uses message digest tables to compare two images in order to select the rows needed for synchronization. If the two images are different, the synchronization progresses according to synchronization policy. The SAMD algorithm does not use techniques that are dependent on specific database venders; neither does it use triggers, stored procedures or timestamps. The SAMD uses only the standard SQL functions for the synchronization. Therefore the SAMD algorithm can be used in any combinations of server-side database and mobile database because of its independence of database vender. This feature is important in order to build efficient mobile business systems because the upcoming mobile business environment has heterogeneous characteristics in which diverse mobile devices, mobile databases, and RDBMS exist.