THINC Ricardo A. Baratto Network Computing Lab Columbia University

THIN CLIENTS FOR THE FUTURE or THin client InterNet Computing

Features ● Fast ● Secure ● Hardware Cursor ● Video support ● Resizable ● Bandwidth scheduling

System Architecture ● Server: Virtual video driver ● Translates driver commands to THINC commands: – RAW – FILL – BITMAP – TILE ● Commands: – Initial compression almost free – Nice abstraction: manage and manipulate as needed

Offscreen Awareness ● Render offscreen, copy onscreen – Translation impossible: Everything is RAW!!! ● Solution: – Capture commands everywhere and follow them

Push with a twist ● Server Pushes data to client but, ● Server is aware of each client's responsiveness: – Does not block – Commands can be clipped and evicted

Command Scheduling ● Improve interactiveness – Particularly useful in slow networks ● Multiqueue and Preemptive ● Two traffic classes: ➔ Real Time: Cursor, keystrokes, mouse drag, DnD ➔ Normal: ordered by size – We don't like ads

Resize ● Small Screens – Bandwidth reduction ● Magnify too! ● Future: Resize & Clip

Video S: really? T: yup. full motion, resizable, application transparent, low CPU overhead. AND, no need for GbE S: but... how? T: just get out of the way! S: eh? T: export the client's hardware to the server and just be a bridge S: catch: There's no sound. Yet.

Results and Comparisons

Features and Optimizations LatencyData Size Per page

Web Latency Data Size Per page

Video

The Future ● Generic Device Support – Sound for the video!!! ● Network resilience ● Collaboration ● Games ●...