Avatar: Mobile distributed computing in the cloud

Cristian Borcea, Xiaoning Ding, Narain Gehani, Reza Curtmola, Mohammad A. Khan, Hillol Debnath

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Avatar is a system that leverages cloud resources to support fast, scalable, reliable, and energy efficient distributed computing over mobile devices. An avatar is a per-user software entity in the cloud that runs apps on behalf of the user's mobile devices. The avatars are instantiated as virtual machines in the cloud that run the same operating system with the mobile devices. In this way, avatars provide resource isolation and execute unmodified app components, which simplifies technology adoption. Avatar apps execute over distributed and synchronized (mobile device, avatar) pairs to achieve a global goal. The three main challenges that must be overcome by the Avatar system are: creating a high-level programming model and a middleware that enable effective execution of distributed applications on a combination of mobile devices and avatars, re-designing the cloud architecture and protocols to support billions of mobile users and mobile apps with very different characteristics from the current cloud workloads, and explore new approaches that balance privacy guarantees with app efficiency/usability. We have built a basic Avatar prototype on Android devices and Android x86 virtual machines. An application that searches for a lost child by analyzing the photos taken by people at a crowded public event runs on top of this prototype.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2015 3rd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Cloud Computing, Services, and Engineering, MobileCloud 2015
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages151-156
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781479989775
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 22 2015
Event3rd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Cloud Computing, Services, and Engineering, MobileCloud 2015 - San Francisco, United States
Duration: Mar 30 2015Apr 3 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2015 3rd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Cloud Computing, Services, and Engineering, MobileCloud 2015

Other

Other3rd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Cloud Computing, Services, and Engineering, MobileCloud 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Francisco
Period3/30/154/3/15

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software

Keywords

  • Cloud computing
  • Mobile distributed computing
  • Smart phones

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