It is now common for Web sites to use active Web content, such as Flash, Silverlight, or Java applets, to support rich, interactive applications. For many mobile devices, however, supporting active content is problematic. First, the physical resource requirements of the browser plug-ins that execute active content may exceed the capabilities of the device. Second, plug-ins are simply not available for many devices. Finally, active code and the plug-ins that execute it often contain security flaws, potentially exposing a user's device or private data to harm. This paper explores a proxy-based approach for transparently supporting active Web content on mobile devices. Our approach uses a proxy to splice active content out of Web pages and replace it with an AJAX-based remote display component. The spliced active content executes within a remote sandbox on the proxy, but it appears embedded in the Web page on the mobile device's browser. To demonstrate the viability of this app...
Alexander Moshchuk, Steven D. Gribble, Henry M. Le