Thin Client Research Articles

Custodian Controlled Data Repository - supporting the timely, easy and cost effective access to linked data

ABSTRACTObjectivesIn response to Data Custodian and Researcher's request to assist improving the timeliness and ease of data extractions, SA NT DataLink established the Custodian Controlled Data Repository (CCDR). Issues including conflicting work priorities and limited resources do prevent timely data extractions. SA NT DataLink, as a trusted third party enable Custodians to hold separate copies of their de-identified content data ready for timely release. The CCDR is opt-in for Custodians. Its key strength being the data remains under the control of participating Custodians, with Custodians updating and correcting their data. SA NT DataLink staff are work with Data Custodians to clean, standardise, update and prepare data in advance of anticipated approvals, including spatial enabled GIS variables. SA NT DataLink staff work under the direction of the Data Custodians, taking responsibility for preparing the data extractions required for the approved project.
 ApproachThe SA NT DataLink Custodian Controlled Data Repository (CCDR) takes advantage of the Secure Unified Research Environment (SURE), which is a secure remote access data laboratory operated by the Sax Institute in Sydney Australia. Using thin client and two-factor authentication, Data Custodians from South Australia and across Australia are able to securely store and maintain de-identified copies of their content data in SURE, ready for standardisation, quality review, and more timely release for approved use and data linkage projects.
 ResultsThe CCDR functional diagram provides an understanding of the data flow and processes that support more timely, easy and cost effective collation and provision of de-identified and privacy protected data. The Curated Gateway feature of SURE manages all the data coming into and being released from the Repository. Agreed regular updates of Data Custodian's data is able to be stored into their sub-directory, with access to the sub-directory managed by authentication and passwords. The SA NT DataLink Analysts is able to perform the role of data integrator for approved projects and use, also running privacy protecting algorithms and verification of the data being provided against the approvals.
 ConclusionThe CCDR securely stores the de-identified data ready for it to be integrated and released to Researchers. Use of secure remote access technologies allows Data Custodians to maintain control of their preloaded and pre-cleaned data in CCDR. In doing so this allows Custodians to authorise the use, from which SA NT DataLink staff dedicated to working only in the CCDR, integrate and release the data in a more timely manner.

Cloud computing and big data: Technologies and applications

Cloud computing and big data: Technologies and applications

Optimizing thin client caches for mobile cloud computing:

SummaryThe emergence and rapid spread of interest and use of cloud computing as an accessible and expandable, as needed, computing facility on the go, has a very deep affinity to the proliferation of intelligent mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. Together, these technologies have the potential of not leaving anybody behind when it comes to computing applications whether small and personal or large and organizational, and regardless of geographic boundaries and economical conditions. However, many technical challenges still exist that are still delaying the realization of this dream with the responsiveness and quality needed from the user perspective. In this paper, we examine user requirements for access to the cloud through thin clients, handheld and mobile devices. In light of these requirements we characterize some of the needed research developments particularly in the area of device architecture. We present our work in exploring the cache design space for embedded processors using evolutionary techniques for mobile and thin client processors. We present a heuristic, evolutionary approach (genetic algorithm) to exploration that significantly cuts down on the time and resources, obtaining a near optimal design. We demonstrate the real‐world utility of our tool‐chain—“CERE” (pronounced SIRI) short for (CachE Recommendation Engine)—by rapidly and efficiently designing a cache hierarchy, which maximizes the performance of a web browser navigating to a set of popular websites running on a single ARM core. The goal is to improve the users' experience using web browsers. “CERE” made the right choices, and we were able to observe a 17.1% speedup going from the “best” hierarchy relative to the “worst” hierarchy. We will detail potential future directions as well.

Clinical impact and value of workstation single sign-on

BackgroundCHRISTUS Health began implementation of computer workstation single sign-on (SSO) in 2015. SSO technology utilizes a badge reader placed at each workstation where clinicians swipe or “tap” their identification badges. ObjectiveTo assess the impact of SSO implementation in reducing clinician time logging in to various clinical software programs, and in financial savings from migrating to a thin client that enabled replacement of traditional hard drive computer workstations. MethodsFollowing implementation of SSO, a total of 65,202 logins were sampled systematically during a 7day period among 2256 active clinical end users for time saved in 6 facilities when compared to pre-implementation. Dollar values were assigned to the time saved by 3 groups of clinical end users: physicians, nurses and ancillary service providers. ResultsThe reduction of total clinician login time over the 7day period showed a net gain of 168.3h per week of clinician time – 28.1h (2.3 shifts) per facility per week. Annualized, 1461.2h of mixed physician and nursing time is liberated per facility per annum (121.8 shifts of 12h per year). The annual dollar cost savings of this reduction of time expended logging in is $92,146 per hospital per annum and $1,658,745 per annum in the first phase implementation of 18 hospitals. Computer hardware equipment savings due to desktop virtualization increases annual savings to $2,333,745. Qualitative value contributions to clinician satisfaction, reduction in staff turnover, facilitation of adoption of EHR applications, and other benefits of SSO are discussed. ConclusionsSSO had a positive impact on clinician efficiency and productivity in the 6 hospitals evaluated, and is an effective and cost-effective method to liberate clinician time from repetitive and time consuming logins to clinical software applications.

Using of virtualized IT-infrastructure under normal operation of automation systems of technological objects

Taking into account the global trends and experience of implementation of modern information technologies in production processes, with the aim of updating and increasing the competitiveness of Ukrainian industrial complexes, the issues and methods for using of hardware and software and technological solutions in the field of virtualization are considered.The main method of research is computer simulation – simulation of real automation systems (including server component) using the tools of virtualization (Microsoft Hyper V). The essence of the method is creation of a virtual environment (infrastructure), including primary and backup server with process control system and workstations. Virtual machines of automation systems are fully meet their physical analogues by heir characteristics.The ways of using of traditional automation systems, which are deployed on the basis of virtualization platform Hyper V, are considered. The main way of using of traditional software automation is their deployment on the basis of server operating system with support for one of the many virtualization technologies, such as: MS Hyper V, VMWare VSphere, Citrix Xen Server, and others.An opportunity of practical operation of automation systems on the basis of virtualized hardware and software server complex with the thin clients as workstations is proved for Experion PKS system and Honeywell C200 controller. The process control system is deployed in a virtualized environment on the basis of server (Windows Server 2012 R2) and normal (Windows 10) operating systems.The possible positive effect of implementation of modern IT infrastructure for technological objects is also analyzed. It lays in the fact of theoretically increase of fault tolerance level, practical simplification of system administration, and creation of bank for backup of virtual machines.This result is associated with a more rational and efficient use of capabilities of modern computer systems (CPU and RAM), data storage systems (using of RAID hard drives) and software.

Attribute-based authentication on the cloud for thin clients

We propose two new authentication schemes for the cloud that support private attribute-based authentication services. The basic scheme is non-anonymous attribute-based authentication scheme. The extended scheme of the basic scheme is fully anonymous attribute-based authentication scheme to realize full anonymity and unlinkability services. In the proposed schemes, a user is authenticated by the remote server if the intersection of the set of his/her assigned attributes and the server’s required attributes exceeds a satisfactory predefined level. Unlike existing attribute-based encryption and signature schemes that require the user to perform significant amount of elliptic curve bilinear pairings and modular exponentiations, and require the user to hold a significantly long decryption/signature key, in our schemes the user is not required to perform any bilinear pairings. With a fixed length private key, independent of the number of attributes, the cloud user performs only few exponentiations by which he/she is able to authenticate himself/herself to the remote server and establish a session key with the server with the condition that he/she satisfies a predefined level of the server’s attributes requirement. Therefore, our schemes are suitable for implementation on devices with limited resources. We provide the rigorous security of the proposed schemes and complexity analysis of our schemes. Finally, the security and performance comparisons of our schemes with the existing related schemes show that our schemes outperform other existing schemes.

Streaming Mobile Cloud Gaming Video Over TCP With Adaptive Source–FEC Coding

Cloud gaming has emerged as a promising application to enable high-end game playing with thin clients. Transmission control protocol (TCP) is pervasively adopted as the transport-layer protocol in the mainstream cloud gaming systems for video communication. However, streaming mobile cloud gaming video using the TCP is challenged with several key technical barriers: 1) the performance limitations of wireless networks in bandwidth and reliability; 2) the high throughput demand and stringent delay constraint imposed by high-quality gaming video transmission; and 3) the deadline violations and throughput fluctuations caused by the packet retransmission and congestion control mechanisms in the TCP. To address these critical problems, this paper proposes an application-layer source–forward error correction (FEC) coding framework dubbed adaptive source–FEC coding over TCP (ESCOT). First, we analytically formulate the optimization problem of joint source–FEC coding to minimize the end-to-end distortion of real-time video communication over TCP. Second, we develop a heuristic solution for effective loss rate approximation, source rate control, and FEC coding adaptation. ESCOT is distinct from existing source–FEC coding schemes in proactively analyzing and leveraging the TCP characteristics. The proposed solution is able to effectively mitigate both consecutive and sporadic video frame drops caused by congestion and random packet losses. We conduct the performance evaluation through extensive emulations in the Exata platform using real-time gaming video encoded by the H.264 codec. Experimental results show that the ESCOT advances the state of the art with noticeable improvements in video peak signal-to-noise ratio, end-to-end delay, goodput, and frame success rate.

SDN-Enabled Game-Aware Routing for Cloud Gaming Datacenter Network

Cloud gaming or gaming as a service, the newest entry in the online gaming world, leverages the well-known concept of cloud computing to provide real-time gaming services to players. This gaming paradigm provides affordable, flexible, and high performance solutions for end users with constrained computing resources and enables them to play high-end graphic games on low-end thin clients, because it renders everything in the cloud and simply streams the resulting high-quality video to the player. Despite its advantages, cloud gaming’s quality of experience suffers from high and unstable end-to-end delay. According to this fact of cloud gaming, datacenters are in charge of performing complex rendering and video encoding computations, delivering high-quality gaming experience to gamers which requires an efficient and smart resource allocation mechanism to allot resources (e.g., memory and network bandwidth) to gaming sessions consistent with their requirements. In this paper, we propose a bi-objective optimization method to find an optimum path for packet transmission within a data center by minimizing delay and maximizing bandwidth utilization. We use a metaheuristic model, called analytic hierarchy process, to solve the NP-complete optimization problem. The resulting method is an analytic hierarchy process-based game aware routing (AGAR) scheme that considers requested game type and requirements in terms of delay and bandwidth to select the best routing path for a game session in a cloud gaming network. The method executes within a software defined network controller, which affords it a global view of the data center with respect to communication delay and available bandwidth. Simulation results indicate that the AGAR can reduce the end-to-end delay by up to 9.5% compared with three other conventional representative methods: the delay-based Dijkstra, the equal cost multi-path routing, and the Hedera routing algorithms. In addition, we demonstrate that the proposed method assigns game flows to network paths and OpenFlow switches in a balanced manner that prevents potential network bottlenecks.

Predictive no-reference assessment of video quality

Among the various means to evaluate the quality of video streams, light-weight No-Reference (NR) methods have low computation and may be executed on thin clients. Thus, these methods would be perfect candidates in cases of real-time quality assessment, automated quality control and in adaptive mobile streaming. Yet, existing real-time, NR approaches are not typically designed to tackle network distorted streams, thus performing poorly when compared to Full-Reference (FR) algorithms. In this work, we present a generic NR method whereby machine learning (ML) may be used to construct a quality metric trained on simplistic NR metrics. Testing our method on nine, representative ML algorithms allows us to show the generality of our approach, whilst finding the best-performing algorithms. We use an extensive video dataset (960 video samples), generated under a variety of lossy network conditions, thus verifying that our NR metric remains accurate under realistic streaming scenarios. In this way, we achieve a quality index that is comparably as computationally efficient as typical NR metrics and as accurate as the FR algorithm Video Quality Metric (97% correlation).

Evaluation of Different Thin-Client Based Virtual Classroom Architectures

Abstract This paper presents an evaluation of different methods used to deliver virtual machines capable of being accessed remotely by thin-clients. The objective of the research was to provide a recommendation for building a cost-effective computer infrastructure for use in two scenarios: as a programming lab, and as an office infrastructure. We have found that different thin-client solutions based on single board computers are reliable solutions for commercially available thin client replacement, because they can run free Linux-based operating systems, can handle Remote Desktop Protocol, have lower acquisition costs, lower power consumption and offer almost the same computing performance. For providing remote desktops, there are several methods and virtualization platforms available. We benchmarked some of these platforms in order to choose the one best-suited for implementation. Our conclusion is that Microsoft Remote Desktop Services outperforms the virtualization based solutions, but it entails high license fees. Of the virtualization solutions tested, the VMW are ESXi based one is the most reliable choice.

Power-saving control framework for cloud services based on set-top box

Recently, the more regulations of energy conservation have been emphasized, the more home appliance manufactures have made competitive efforts to improve the energy efficiency of their products. However, there have been no correlation analysis between energy-efficient home appliances and cloud technologies. While cloud services have been rapidly adopted in many service areas to guarantee a high return of investment (ROI) for service providers, Previous studies on power saving have been conducted to reduce the standby power consumption for home appliances, like a set-top box (STB), which can be worked as a thin client for cloud services, or have only shown power models of a virtual machine (VM) on the cloud side without considering the power consumption states of its corresponding thin clients As a result, this paper proposes a power-saving control framework (PSCF) that consumes low power levels for both on the cloud side and on a STB efficiently for providing cloud services. The experimental result shows that the proposed framework outperforms the experiment not applied with any other power saving method for cloud services in terms of power efficiency.

Toward Delay-Efficient Game-Aware Data Centers for Cloud Gaming

Gaming on demand is an emerging service that has recently started to garner prominence in the gaming industry. Cloud-based video games provide affordable, flexible, and high-performance solutions for end-users with constrained computing resources and enables them to play high-end graphic games on low-end thin clients. Despite its advantages, cloud gaming's Quality of Experience (QoE) suffers from high and varying end-to-end delay. Since the significant part of computational processing, including game rendering and video compression, is performed in data centers, controlling the transfer of information within the cloud has an important impact on the quality of cloud gaming services. In this article, a novel method for minimizing the end-to-end latency within a cloud gaming data center is proposed. We formulate an optimization problem for reducing delay, and propose a Lagrangian Relaxation (LR) time-efficient heuristic algorithm as a practical solution. Simulation results indicate that the heuristic method can provide close-to-optimal solutions. Also, the proposed model reduces end-to-end delay and delay variation by almost 11% and 13.5%, respectively, and outperforms the existing server-centric and network-centric models. As a byproduct, our proposed method also achieves better fairness among multiple competing players by almost 45%, on average, in comparison with existing methods.

Dbling: Identifying extensions installed on encrypted web thin clients

Researchers have developed forensic analysis techniques for so many types of digital media that there is a procedure for almost every digital media that a law enforcement officer may encounter at a crime scene. However, a new type of device has started to gain momentum in the consumer market: web thin clients. These web thin clients are characterized by native support for basic web browsing, yet other functionality relies on a combination of web applications and web storage. In fact, these devices are so different from other types of computing and storage devices that virtually all of the techniques forensic examiners and researchers typically use do not apply.The most popular web thin client, Chrome OS, has additional forensic challenges: (1) all data associated with users is encrypted, (2) Chrome OS correctly uses TPM and Secure Boot, and (3) user data is stored on the device and in the cloud.In this work, we present a novel approach to extract residual evidence stored on Chrome OS devices that successfully bypasses these challenges. Specifically, we are able to determine which extensions and apps are installed on an encrypted Chrome OS device, without breaking or otherwise extracting the encryption keys. Our framework, called dbling, generates signatures or fingerprints of extension and app code that persist after encryption, and we are able to use these fingerprints to identify the installed extensions and apps. We create fingerprints of 160,025 extensions for Chrome OS, we measure the uniqueness of these fingerprints, and we perform a case study by installing 14 extensions on a Chrome OS device and attempt to find their fingerprints.

Development of High Precision Differential GPS System in Kazakhstan

Objectives: This article describes design and classification of a variety of states and events that form the basis for information model of the local system of differential correction in the post-processing mode. Methods: The article introduces computational methods of differential correction that employ measurements from single-frequency GPS receivers. Experimental results confirmed estimation accuracy of the methods in post-processing mode, which proved that the developed differential GPS system demonstrated appropriate performance when compared with the existing analogous systems in the world. Findings: The research reveals a set of states and events fundamental for developing an LSDC information model in post-processing mode. A GPS-based system of differential correction is one of the main alternatives in solving problems of high-precision satellite navigation. In future, this system under development will be able to operate in real time and post-processing modes, static and dynamic modes, as well in the mode of a thick client (rover coordinates are computed using the mobile station) and a thin client (rover coordinates are computed using the base station). The composition and structure of the model in post-processing mode are examined. As a result of this research, a systematic project of the LSDC GPS was developed. These designs were made using Unified Modeling Language (UML), which represents functional requirements and appropriate system diagrams of mathematical provision, LSDC hardware and software. High accuracy and precision of the developed system are verified by experimental results shown in the paper. Applications/Improvements: The GPS system should be developed further to be able to cover other modes of operation.

Promoting Voluntariness on Technology Usage in Organisations

Voluntariness in technology adoption and use is vital in promoting technology diffusion and use in organisations. Various technology adoption models have been proposed to explain the adoption of technologies in different settings, such as organizational and individual, as well as in the voluntary and mandatory contexts. Recently, uptake of mobile phones in achieving organisational targets has been increased in developing countries and Tanzania in particular. This is due to the notable improvements in both hardware performance and sophistications. In organisation context, not all users are willing to use technology as required. In such circumstances, they are mandated to use it in order to fulfil their working duties. This leads to poor uptake of technology and results to unclear understanding regarding to their attitudes towards using it. While some studies have discussed the impact of voluntariness in using traditional desktop computer systems and thin client computing, mobile phone technology has not received the deserved attention. Discussing voluntariness in using mobile phone technology in organisations in relation to other technologies is essential especially due to its usage in both working and private purposes. This paper describes the voluntary aspects of using mobile phones in performing activities of the firms in Tanzania and compares it with desktop and thin client technologies. Also, it proposes possible ways of handling such situation in order to improve its use. Among others, the paper has analysed mandotoriness on usage of mobile technology. Further, it highlights key areas which should be addressed in order to improve the usage of mobiletechnology in organisations and eventually cover the gap caused by such mandatory situations.

THIN CLIENT FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF COMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Monitoring the telecom infrastructure reflects not only a technical perspective but also a business perspective, highlighting, besides possible technical issues, the network areas that need improvements or investments. This paper describes the method for tele-monitoring of communication infrastructure responsible for switching and signaling in the mobile converged core network. The application allows the display of real-time information on a thin client. Thus, decisions related to infrastructure (resource management, optimizations, redeployments) can be taken based on notifications received on a mobile device (e.g. an Android smartphone) Network operators are dealing with the challenge of reducing operational expenses OPEX and optimize the functionality of distributed infrastructure, within fast response times or methods to predict and avoid network issues, through automatic maintenance solutions. The purpose of the implementations presented in this paper is to obtain a remote monitoring solution that provides mobility and which has an interface accessible to any user. The user has access to data wherever they are, as long as an Internet connection is available. The scope of the implemented demonstrator is to obtain an intuitive system, easy to set up and use, with the possibility of further development, while providing a very good perfor mance / price ratio. The user has the possibility to view graphs that highlight errors, can analyze detailed view of logs and can perform real-time monitoring of the activities of system responsible with backup actions. communication between the server and the Android application is achieved through REST Web services (Representational State Transfer) (1). The multiplicity of standards and protocols used in the Internet have made possible the communication between two or more systems connected to the Internet that is a distance from one another. Industry software development, architectural models based on web services are seen increasingly more often, offering numerous advantages, especially when used together with an DAO ( Data Access Objects)(2) type architecture that brings an innovation in the interpretation of data and modeling of data objects. This concept will be detailed later, with examples related to the demonstrations.

Authentication algorithm for participants of information interoperability in process of operating system remote loading on thin client

Authentication algorithm for participants of information interoperability in process of operating system remote loading on thin client

Accelerating task completion in mobile offloading systems through adaptive restart

Mobile application offloading is an efficient technique to unload the burden of intensive computation from thin clients to powerful servers. In a mobile offloading system, cloud computing is utilized to complete some heavy tasks which are migrated from resource-constrained mobile devices to the Cloud. To assure system performance, the quality of the wireless network connection plays an important role. In previous work we experimentally explored the impact of packet loss and delay in wireless networks on the completion time of an offloading task. We investigated a local restart mechanism to mitigate these effects. In the presence of unreliable communication, once the waiting time for the response of a cloud server exceeds a given threshold, exploiting the local resources of a mobile client can accelerate the task completion.

Library computing services going back to the future: a thin client approach

Purpose This study aims to provide insights and commentary into issues encountered in providing computing services to library users in an era of shrinking budgets, reductions in staffing and increased utility costs. Design/methodology/approach The study uses examples and illustrations from a real-world deployment of thin client technologies to illustrate efficiencies achieved in not only maintenance and continued upkeep but also consumption of power. Findings Although thin client technologies were largely displaced with the proliferation of inexpensive and powerful desktop computing, great savings in both staff time and electricity can be achieved with a phasing out of desktop computing in favor of a thin client model. Originality/value This paper describes the benefits of a test of the viability of a thin client computing model in a highly utilized academic library computing facility. The consumption of power of the thin client model is compared and contrasted with the desktop systems that were displaced.

Virtualization Approach: Theory and Application

Virtualization is a new method regarding using computing resources efficiently, by maximizing energy efficiency, extend the life of the hardware and also recycles. Virtualization technology is a system of work done by the software can merge some real physical systems into a single virtual form commonly known as virtualization without prejudice advantages over the single system. Of course, this system can reduce the amount of hardware, electrical energy consumption and time used thereby increasing the level of efficiency and effectiveness. Also, virtualization certainly reduces heat energy arising from the number of installed hardware, thereby reducing the increase in temperature geothermal (Global Warming). Some virtualization includes Server Virtualization, Network Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Grid Computing, Application Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, Virtualization and Thin Client Platform.