Limits of wide-area thin-client computing

While many application service providers have proposed using thin-client computing to deliver computational services over the Internet, little work has been done to evaluate the effectiveness of thin-client computing in a wide-area network. To assess the potential of thin-client computing in the context of future commodity high-bandwidth Internet access, we have used a novel, non-invasive slow-motion benchmarking technique to evaluate the performance of several popular thin-client computing platforms in delivering computational services cross-country over Internet2. Our results show that using thin-client computing in a wide-area network environment can deliver acceptable performance over Internet2, even when client and server are located thousands of miles apart on opposite ends of the country. However, performance varies widely among thin-client platforms and not all platforms are suitable for this environment. While many thin-client systems are touted as being bandwidth efficient, ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: SIGMETRICS
• Authors: Albert M. Lai, Jason Nieh
• Keywords: Hardware, SIGMETRICS 2002, Thin-client, Thin-client Computing, Thin-client Computing Platforms