Probabilistic broadcast-based cache invalidation scheme for location dependent data in mobile environments

Data caching is widely known as an effective powersaving technique, in which mobile devices use local caches instead of original data placed on a server, in order to reduce the power consumption necessary for network accesses. In such data caching, a cache invalidation mechanism is important in preventing these devices from unintentionally accessing invalid data. In this paper, we propose a broadcast-based protocol for cache invalidation in a location-aware system. The proposed protocol is designed to reduce the access time required for obtaining necessary invalidation reports through broadcast media and to avoid client-side sleep fragmentation while retrieving the reports. In the proposed protocol, a Bloom filter is used as the data structure of an invalidation report, in order to probabilistically check the invalidation of caches. Furthermore, we propose three broadcast scheduling methods that are intended to achieve flexible broadcasting structured by the Bloom filter: fragmentation avoidance scheduling method (FASM), metrics balancing scheduling method (MBSM), and minimizing access time scheduling method (MASM). The broadcast schedule is arranged for consecutive accesses to geographically neighboring invalidation reports. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed methods is evaluated by simulation. The results indicate that the MBSM and MASM achieve a high rate of performance scheduling. Compared to the FASM, the MBSM reduces the access time by 34%, while the fragmentations on the resultant schedule increase by 40%, and the MASM reduces the access time by 40%, along with an 85% increase in the number of fragmentations.