Optimize Ajax Website’s Connection to Mobile Devices

Mobile devices are limited in connection not only in their hardware capability but also in network connection. Places without any WiFi cannot easily connect online because EDGE, HSDPA or 3G might not be able to handle the connection properly. Ajax based applications needs a lot more than a simple dial-up connection.

Take for example, Google Mail can never be loaded properly even with dial-up connection – and this situation happens with desktops and laptops. If Google Mail is accessed through mobile devices, it could get slower.

That is why it is important for web developers for mobile websites to optimize their sites for mobile access.

Here are the common settings for wireless connection on mobile devices:

• Mobile browsers are running on Http/1.1. This mean connections to the server are only limited.
  
• Http request is required for every link request. That means every link that you will add in your website will require a request even when they are not connected yet.
  
• TCP connection do happen every HTTP request. This adds more lag time when loading a website in mobile devices.
  

Optimizing connection is a little bit challenging for developers but here are some key strategies they could do to reduce latency time of Ajax applications in mobile devices.

1. Reducing the number of links on scripts – reduce external resources as much as possible. Load the server with every data that could be needed by the user. By actively connecting one function to anther website, the mobile connection will be divided. More external connections will mean slower browsing.

2. Limited number of connections – if you really need multiple connections; ensure that you limit them to six per browser and two connections per domain. Like we’ve already indicated, references and connections to external sources should be limited. If you limit external connections to only two, you should have a great website that’s easily accessible.

3. DNS Look-up should be limited to four – DNS could really drag the mobile connection since it will require the mobile browser to look up specific connection which will take up a lot of bandwidth and resources. There are even mobile devices that could only handle two but recent mobile devices have been optimized to work like a regular browser but hardware capability is still limited.

4. Pushing the boundaries of your mobile browser should be avoided – it’s always better to be safe that sorry. Mobile websites should have smaller footprints compared to regular websites. Even though your mobile device’s connection is excellent, it doesn’t mean it could handle regular websites. Pushing the mobile phone’s capability will only increase the latency time which could even force the connection to freeze.

Mobile devices are a completely different. Connection is a lot smaller and browsers are usually limited by the hardware capability of the mobile device. If you are planning to build a highly interactive Ajax based application for mobile devices, keep your connections limited and stack the entire operation necessary in your website in a single server to avoid latency.