Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Modeap: Moving Desktop Application to Mobile Cloud Service

  • Published:
Mobile Networks and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Thanks to the availability of various mobile applications, lots of users shift from desktop environments, e.g., PCs and laptops, to mobile devices, e.g., smartphones and tablets. However, there are still some desktop applications without counterparts on mobile devices, such as some integrated development environments (e.g., eclipse) and automatic industry control systems. In this paper, we propose Modeap, a platform-independent mobile cloud service that can push all desktop applications developed for various operating systems from cloud servers to mobile devices. Modeap follows a design principle of complete detachment and regeneration of desktop user interface, i.e., the essential graphical primitives of the original desktop applications will be intercepted and then translated into standard web-based graphical primitives such that the interactions between users and remote cloud applications become possible via mobile web browsers. In this way, all desktop applications built upon the same set of graphical primitives can be used on mobile devices in great flexibility without installing any new software. We have developed a proof-of-concept prototype that provides Windows applications from cloud server to mobile web browsers. The results of extensive experiments show that the proposed framework can achieve our design goals with low latency and bandwidth consumption.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Zhang W, Jarzabek S, Loughran N, Rashid A (2003) Reengineering a pc-based system into the mobile device product line. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Principles of Software Evolution, IWPSE ’03. Washington, IEEE Computer Society, pp 149–160

  2. Heiser G (2011) Virtualizing embedded systems: why bother? In: Proceedings of the 48th Design Automation Conference, DAC ’11. New York, ACM, pp 901–905

  3. Richardson T, Stafford-Fraser Q, Wood K, Hopper A (1998) Virtual network computing. IEEE Internet Comput 2(1):33–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Baratto RA, Potter S, Su G, Nieh J (2004) MobiDesk: mobile virtual desktop computing. In: Proceedings of the 10th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking, MobiCom ’04. New York, ACM, pp 1–15

  5. Baratto RA, Kim LN, Nieh J (2005) THINC: a virtual display architecture for thin-client computing. In: Proceedings of the twentieth ACM symposium on Operating systems principles, SOSP ’05. New York, ACM, pp 277–290

  6. Tsao C-L, Kakumanu S, Sivakumar R (2011) SmartVNC: an effective remote computing solution for smartphones. In: Proceedings of the 17th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking, MobiCom ’11. New York, ACM, pp 13–24

  7. Guo Y, Zhang L, Kong J, Sun J, Feng T, Chen X (2011) Jupiter: transparent augmentation of smartphone capabilities through cloud computing. In: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SOSP Workshop on Networking, Systems, and Applications on Mobile Handhelds, MobiHeld ’11. New York, ACM, pp 2:1–2:6

  8. Miller FP, Vandome AF, McBrewsterm J (2009) Desktop Virtualization: Desktop virtualization, Personal computer, Smartphone, Remote desktop software, Comparison of remote desktop software, Desktop... Laptop, Thin client, Server (computing). Alpha Press

  9. Barr K, Bungale P, Deasy S, Gyuris V, Hung P, Newell C, Tuch H, Zoppis B (2010) The VMware mobile virtualization platform: is that a hypervisor in your pocket SIGOPS Oper Syst Rev 44: 124–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Gupta A, Preston K, Rodriguez A (2010) DebianRunner: Running Desktop Applications on Android Smartphones. Technical report, University of Illinois

  11. Lawton K, Denney B, Bothamy C (2006) The bochs ia-32 emulator project

  12. Hunt G, Brubacher D (1999) Detours: binary interception of Win32 functions. In: Proceedings of the 3rd conference on USENIX Windows NT Symposium - Vol 3. Berkeley, USENIX Association, pp 14–14

  13. Ramon J (2009) Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook. Packt Publishing

  14. Carroll A, Heiser G (2010) An analysis of power consumption in a smartphone. In: Proceedings of the 2010 USENIX conference on USENIX annual technical conference, USENIXATC′10. Berkeley, pp 21–21

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Aizu, Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Japan

    He Li, Peng Li & Song Guo

  2. School of Computer Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Xiaofei Liao & Hai Jin

Authors
  1. He Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Peng Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Song Guo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xiaofei Liao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Hai Jin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Song Guo.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, H., Li, P., Guo, S. et al. Modeap: Moving Desktop Application to Mobile Cloud Service. Mobile Netw Appl 19, 563–571 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-014-0518-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-014-0518-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation