Contemporary Synchronization Technologies

Data synchronization is the process of reconciling two sets of data (databases) so that their contents are identical at the end of synchronization. The end result of a device synchronizing with another device would be the emergence of an identical copy of the database on both the devices that reflects the data that was common to both the devices as well as unique data that each of the device contributed. In this chapter we first describe the concept of a `conflict' in synchronization in Section 2.1. In Section 2.2 we explain synchronization issues with mobile devices in particular and then go on to explain some synchronization technologies like Hotsync, Intellisync, SyncML and finally CPISync. The description of CPISync is brief here and is meant to serve as background for Section 2.3 that compares the various synchronization protocols mentioned above. Some of the work presented in this chapter appeared in [12].