Calling the Cloud: Enabling Mobile Phones as Interfaces to Cloud Applications

Abstract

Abstract. Mobile phones are set to become the universal interface to online services and cloud computing applications. However, using them for this purpose today is limited to two configurations: applications either run on the phone or run on the server and are remotely accessed by the phone. These two options do not allow for a customized and flexible service interaction, limiting the possibilities for performance optimization as well. In this paper we present a middleware platform that can automatically distribute different layers of an application between the phone and the server, and optimize a variety of objective functions (latency, data transferred, cost, etc.). Our approach builds on existing technology for distributed module management and does not require new infrastructures. In the paper we discuss how to model applications as a consumption graph, and how to process it with a number of novel algorithms to find the optimal distribution of the application modules. The application is then dynamically deployed on the phone in an efficient and transparent manner. We have tested and validated our approach with extensive experiments and with two different applications. The results indicate that the techniques we propose can significantly optimize the performance of cloud applications when used from mobile phones.

Adaptive deployment and configuration for mobile augmented reality in the cloudlet

“…At runtime a clone VM is instantiated at the server side, and the application transparently switches between execution at the device or at the clone. Giurgiu et al [5] and Verbelen et al [6] use OSGi components offloadable units. Monitoring information is used to build a graph model of the software, from which graph cutting algorithms calculate the optimal deployment.…”

“…Today many such cyber foraging systems exist, offloading applications either on a VM [4][3], software component [5][6] [7] or a method level [8] [9]. Although a lot of research has been done on profiling and partitioning applications and decision algorithms to decide when to offload, two important issues still remain.…”

User Experience of Mobile Cloud Applications - Current State and Future Directions

“…An example of such an approach is Alfredo [4]. The Alfredo system uses a graph representation of an application's components to find a cut to maximize or minimize an objective function.…”

MAPCloud: Mobile Applications on an Elastic and Scalable 2-Tier Cloud Architecture

“…The Cloudlets [16] platform provides mechanisms for creation of resources near access points (AP) that provide computational and storage services for mobile users. Other efforts [17], [14], [4], use concepts from workÀow technologies to partition applications between the mobile device and a local cloud. In particular, parameters such as code-size, allocated memory and computational needs of the application are shown to be crucial in effective partitioning of the workÀow for high utility [17].…”

“…Other efforts [17], [14], [4], use concepts from workÀow technologies to partition applications between the mobile device and a local cloud. In particular, parameters such as code-size, allocated memory and computational needs of the application are shown to be crucial in effective partitioning of the workÀow for high utility [17]. The MAUI [14], CloneCloud [4] and [2] systems enable ¿ne-grained energy-aware ofÀoading of mobile application to the infrastructure.…”