ZTE

ZTE Communications ›› 2013, Vol. 11 ›› Issue (1): 27-36.

• Special Topic • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Human-Centric Composite-Quality Modeling and Assessment for Virtual Desktop Clouds

Yingxiao Xu1, Prasad Calyam2, David Welling3,4, Saravanan Mohan3,4, Alex Berryman3,4, and Rajiv Ramnath4   

  1. 1. Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China;
    2. University of Missouri, MO 65201, USA;
    3. Ohio Supercomputer Center/OARnet, OH 43212, USA;
    4. The Ohio State University, OH 43210, USA
  • Received:2013-01-23 Online:2013-03-25 Published:2013-03-25
  • About author:Yingxiao Xu (xuyx@fudan.edu.cn) received his BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from Southeast University, China, in 1993 and 1996. He received his PhD degree in computer science and engineering from Fudan University, China, in 2002. He is currently a lecturer at Fudan University. From 2010 to 2011, he was a visiting scholar at the Ohio Supercomputer Center/OARnet, The Ohio State University. His research interests include software reuse, social computing, and computer and network management.

    Prasad Calyam (calyamp@missouri.edu) received his BS degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Bangalore University, India, in 1999. He received his MS and PhD degrees in electrical and computer engineering from The Ohio State University, in 2002 and 2007. He is currently an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His research interests include distributed and cloud computing, computer networking, networked-multimedia applications and cyber security.

    David Welling (dwelling@osc.edu) is pursuing a BS degree in computer science and engineering at The Ohio State University. His research interests include web architectures, reconfigurable software engineering, and systems performance assessment.

    Saravanan Mohan (smohan@osc.edu) received his BE degree in computer science from PSG College of Technology, India, in 2008. He is currently pursuing his MS degree in computer science and engineering at The Ohio State University. His research interests include cloud monitoring and desktop virtualization.

    Alex Berryman (aberryman@osc.edu) is currently pursuing a BS degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering at The Ohio State University. His research interests include network monitoring, desktop virtualization, and cyber security.

    Rajiv Ramnath (ramnath@cse.ohio-state.edu) is director of practice at the Collaborative for Enterprise Transformation and Innovation (CETI). He is also associate director of the Institute of Sensing Systems and associate professor of practice in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University. His research interests include wireless sensor networking, pervasive computing, enterprise architecture, software engineering, and work-management systems. He received his MS and PhD degrees in computer science from The Ohio State University in 1983 and 1989. He received his BS degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, in 1981.

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Abstract: There are several motivations, such as mobility, cost, and security, that are behind the trend of traditional desktop users transitioning to thin-client-based virtual desktop clouds (VDCs). Such a trend has led to the rising importance of human-centric performance modeling and assessment within user communities that are increasingly making use of desktop virtualization. In this paper, we present a novel reference architecture and its easily deployable implementation for modeling and assessing objective user quality of experience (QoE) in VDCs. This architecture eliminates the need for expensive, time-consuming subjective testing and incorporates finite-state machine representations for user workload generation. It also incorporates slow-motion benchmarking with deep-packet inspection of application task performance affected by QoS variations. In this way, a “composite-quality”metric model of user QoE can be derived. We show how this metric can be customized to a particular user group profile with different application sets and can be used to a) identify dominant performance indicators and troubleshoot bottlenecks and b) obtain both absolute and relative objective user QoE measurements needed for pertinent selection of thin-client encoding configurations in VDCs. We validate our composite-quality modeling and assessment methodology by using subjective and objective user QoE measurements in a real-world VDC called VDPilot, which uses RDP and PCoIP thin-client protocols. In our case study, actual users are present in virtual classrooms within a regional federated university system.

Key words: virtual desktops, quality modeling and assessment, performance benchmarking, thin-client protocol adaptation, objective QoE metrics