Android : Android app remote sql access: Communications link failure

I am facing this problem of communications link failure while connecting my android app to remote mysql database.

JAR File Used: mysql-connector-java-5.1.31-bin

Remote sql information: innodb_version: 1.0.17-13.3

protocol_version: 10 version: 5.1.62-rel13.3-log

version_comment: Percona Server (GPL), 13.3, Revision 435

version_compile_machine: x86_64

version_compile_os: unknown-linux-gnu

I tried using mysql workbench to connect to remote database and it works perfectly. But with my android app, I get a communications link failure. I don't think there is anything wrong with my connection preferences as those are the same that I am using in workbench or to connect via terminal (on mac & it works).

Also, I think the jdbc driver I am using is also fine. Can anyone make any other suggestions as to what the problem could be?

Here is the complete exception:

07-07 02:59:10.568: D/QueryException(1745): Exception in connection Communications link failure
07-07 02:59:10.568: D/QueryException(1745): The last packet sent successfully to the server was 0 milliseconds ago. The driver has not received any packets from the server.

Here is the part of code causing exception in Logcat:

connection = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://<hostname_goes_here>/<database_name>","<username>","<password>");
        if(connection!=null){
            Log.d("Connecting to remote server", "Remote sql server connection successful");
        }
        else{
            Log.d("Connection failure", "Could not connect to remote sql server with host "+hostName);
        }
    } catch(Exception e){
        Log.d("QueryException","Exception in connection "+e.getMessage());
        System.out.println("Caught exception while connecting to database "+e);
        e.printStackTrace();
    }