Damian ClarkeMichael Gonzales

Evaluating Web-Based Multimedia

Performance on Thin-Clients and RDP

Background

• What is a Thin-client?

• A thin client is a computer or a computer program which

depends heavily on some other computer to fulfill its

traditional computational roles.

• Less management needed as most resources are focused on

the server

• Traditional Uses

• Low-budget, low-bandwidth, centralized environments where

computing resources are limited

Proposed Work

• Why?

• Evaluate performance of web-based multimedia on

thin-clients

• Multimedia types: Flash vs. HTML 5

• Evaluate Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) vs. Sun-Ray

thin client performance

• Compare various scenarios of clients connected vs.

native performance

Thin-Client Experimental Set-up

• Sun Ray Server 5.2 running on Solaris 11, 2.8Ghz, 3GB RAM• Apple Airport Express Router• Sun Ray Thin Client 2 and a 2FS• 1-2 X-Windows Remote clients for comparison purposes

Measurement and Instrumentation tools

• GUIMARK 2• FPS benchmarking tool to analyze Flash and HTML 5

multimedia performance• Rendering performance to screen based on 60 fps rate

• Dtrace • Integrated Solaris OS Dynamic Instrumentation Utility• Instrumentation granularity : User and kernel level software

Thread-local variables, Associative arrays, Data aggregation and Speculative Tracing

• Subjective evaluations• User perceived performance of thin-client performance over

native performance

GUIMARK Testing Types

• Vector Charting Test• Stresses vector graphics of the designated application by

simulating a streaming stock chart with different alpha fills

GUIMARK Testing Types

• Bitmap Gaming Test• Simulates a tower defense game. Uses lots of bitmap resources

and animations for sprites on screen at once.

GUIMARK Testing Types

• Text Column Test• Tests rendering capability of various text organizations and

character types

GUIMARK Experimental Results (Firefox 7)

Averages0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

SunRay HTML 5; 3.052

SunRay Flash 10; 9.93

Native HTML 5; 4.648

Native Flash 10; 11.926

Vector Charting

Fram

es p

er se

cond

GUIMARK Experimental Results (Firefox 7)

Averages0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

SunRay HTML 5; 1.69

SunRay Flash 10; 4.592

Native HTML 5; 7.266 Native Flash 10; 7.092

Bitmap Game

Fram

es p

er se

cond

GUIMARK Experimental Results (Firefox 7)

Averages0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

SunRay HTML 5; 7.504SunRay Flash 10; 6.784

Native HTML 5; 13.112

Native Flash 10; 7.368

Text Column

Fram

es p

er se

cond

Averages

HTML 5 Flash 10 HTML 5 Flash 10Sunray Native

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

3.052

9.93

4.648

11.926

1.69

4.592

7.266 7.0927.504

6.784

13.112

7.368

Vector Charting Bitmap Game Text Column

Fram

es p

er se

cond

Remaining Tasks

• Instrumentation

• Dtrace Scripts: To provided analysis of possible bottlenecks

such as network lag, CPU and memory scheduling

• Additional scenarios of thin-client web multimedia frame-rates

with Sun Rays and X-session comparisons

• Look at the option of varying bandwidth configurations of the

router to gauge impact on performance

Questions and Comments?