Evaluating a Dynamic Keep-Alive Messaging Strategy for Mobile Pervasive Systems

• Timely loss-of-contact detection between devices in pervasive systems using mobile networks is an important aspect for both functionality and user experience. Traditional schemes where time-to-live is defined by the service provider are not adequate in mobile networks where communication failures are frequent. On the other hand, schemes using keep-alive messaging tend to increase the communication overhead, in particular if the time to detect a loss of contact needs to be short. We introduce a strategy where the time between keep-alive messages is adjusted dynamically according to the need in a particular application. Our solution was evaluated with usage data from a professional application built on the PalCom framework. The measurements show a 96 % decrease of the communication overhead while still maintaining the same system responsiveness.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datavetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Sciences (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Datorsystem (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Computer Systems (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Medieteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Media and Communication Technology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Keep-alive messaging

Loss-of-contact detection

Heartbeat

Mobile

Pervasive systems

E-health

PalCom

Middleware

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)