Supporting ubiquitous computing with stateless consoles and computation caches

In this thesis, we describe mechanisms to support a system architecture that provides ubiquitous access to a globally distributed and essentially unlimited set of anonymous computing resources. We propose network-attached frame buffer consoles to access computing sessions on remote servers. Console features: stateless, no software, no administration, user mobility, isolation from desktop failures. We developed a methodology to evaluate interactive performance of GUI and multimedia applications. Quantitative analysis on an implementation showed that commodity networks provide an interactive experience indistinguishable from traditional desktops. Next, we restructured operating systems using a new abstraction: compute capsules. Capsules provide a private, customizable, virtualized, host-independent system interface. They encapsulate the state of a user's computing session. Capsules migrate between machines or reside off-line in stable storage, thereby solving many problems: scaling to unlimited logins, dynamic load balancing, availability, checkpoint/resume, mobility, remote administration. We demonstrated that it is feasible to extend COTS operating systems with this abstraction. Our prototype suspends and resumes complete login sessions running standard batch, GUI, and multimedia applications.

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