Virtualization of Mobile Phones Larry Rudolph CFP (@MIT) October 28 2009

What is virtualization? vir•tu•al (adj): existing in essence or effect, though not in actual fact Virtualization is time-sharing and abstraction done right layer of abstraction between OS and actual hardware Current major use cases In data-center: server consolidation In home: multiple OS’s in same box, e.g. windows on mac Note: Smartphones are comparable with 10 year-old PC are more personal than PC’s Virtualization has been around for a long time (IBM did it in the 70’s). It’s recent resurgence started about 15 years ago. Since much of a smartphone computing capabilities are about the same as a 10 year old personal computer, one should not worry about the overheads. Cell phones are not just 10 year-old PC’s, so the use cases are different. Larry Rudolph Oct 2009

Smartphones are like PC’s Mobile Smartphone Apps: contacts, ringtones, photos, music, movies, browser, chess & other children games, facebook, IM, viruses, ... Personal (questionable?) content Corporate Smartphone Corporate email, files, enterprise apps, sensitive data Locked down, encrypted, vpn’ed, password, managed by corporate IT department (e.g. Blackberry) -- lost, stolen, or hacked phone could be costly to enterprise Peaceful Coexistence? “Fences make good neighbors,” No restrictions to what I do with my phone, but no viruses, no political content, no ... Today, many people routinely carry two mobile phones all the time. Some people need to keep different aspects of their lives separate. Some companies are concerned about the content contained on their devices. DRM-broken apps, songs, movies could cause problems if discovered. Especially true for highly “personal” content. On the otherhand, corporate phones can be “dorky” or far from “cool.” Encrypting everything is expensive (power), getting permission before installing apps is annoying and invasive. Constantly entering passwords is silly. Larry Rudolph Oct 2009

Mobile phones are personal Different uses Everyday: utilitarian (music, video, email, IM, ...) Beach & sports: rugged, scratchproof Formal: small, elegant, color-coordinated Vacation: great camera, global maps Fashion Traditional: Style, size, color Geek: capabilities, auxiliary features Like watches, music players, even shoes but there is no 2-year contract on shoes Phones are with us all the time. But at different times, we “wear different hats” and our phones have to contain the union of everything we need. This is not always possible -- cannot be big and small at same time. Cannot be a fashion statement and utilitarian. But we are often stuck with one phone at a time. Larry Rudolph Oct 2009

Mobile phones are locked You may own your phone but it may be locked to a particular carrier apps must first be signed before they can be installed. no root access; cannot install own drivers Who cares? Teachers, Free-lance OS developers Reason? Isolation from baseband Is it legal? Can buy PC and install favorite OS, why can’t we do the same for phones? Larry Rudolph Oct 2009

Solution: Virtualize Many vPhones in one physical handset Grandma doesn’t care what OS is running She should be able to buy apps from any store Uniform UI, isolated virtual machines underneath work/personal phone; compartmentalize personalities Larry Rudolph Oct 2009

Solution: Virtualize Many vPhones in one physical handset Grandma doesn’t care what OS is running She should be able to buy apps from any store Uniform UI, isolated virtual machines underneath work/personal phone; compartmentalize personalities Larry Rudolph Oct 2009

Solution: Virtualize Data, Applications, Communications can be moved to: physical handset (symbian, windows, palm, linux, ...) much different phone or PDA laptop desktop My Phone apps data config Larry Rudolph Oct 2009

Summary My phone is always with me and monitors everything I do I would like to monitor what it does There is more to my life than interacting with my phone I sit in front of my laptop Innovative applications will be directed towards the phone Personal Computers’s aren’t sufficiently personal or location- aware User Interface is where it is at Life is too short to spend 5 clicks in order to buy a candy bar More people need to work on infrastructure Virtual phones encourage experimentation & innovation Larry Rudolph Oct 2009