Real time collaborative editing in mobile computing environments

Nowadays, due to the rapidly development of technology, the mobile computing environment is in continuous transformation. The purpose of this paper is to determine how mobile devices can be used for the development of collaborative systems. The field of mobile collaborative work is in progress (is a part of the Computer Supported Collaborative Work CSCW) and will provide in the future a tool for co-workers to collaborate and work on the same shared workspace in realtime to provide data such as text, images and diagrams regardless of their geographical location. This paper describes several algorithms used to implement group editors such as: causal order algorithm based on vector clocks, total order algorithm based on a centralized component, total order algorithm based on a token, three-phase distributed algorithm, dOPT, Jupiter and Paxos. A comparative performance evaluation is made to determine which of these algorithms is the most suited for mobile environments where the network is an important and expensive resource.