An adaptive approach to optimize thin client protocols

In a thin client computing environment, applications run on server farms and are accessed through thin client protocols like Remote Frame Buffer (RFB), or Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Although they work well in high and stable bandwidth networks, thin client protocols require some modifications to adapt to the varying characteristics of wireless networks and to reduce the energy consumption of thin client mobile devices. In this paper we present both upstream and downstream adaptive protocol optimizations. In the upstream direction, user events are buffered to reduce packetization overhead. In the downstream direction an adaptive scheduling-based transmission pattern is adopted. Our solution shows we can reduce the bandwidth consumption while preserving the Quality of Experience. Those adaptive mechanisms were developed as part of MobiThin FP7-funded European project.