CSR: Medium: Mobile Distributed Computing in the Cloud

该项目研究云计算如何支持移动分布式计算，在移动分布式计算中，用户的移动设备相互交互，为移动计算和感知提供广泛的协作应用程序。代理是云中的每个用户的软件实体，代表用户的移动设备。与移动设备相比，代理具有更大的存储容量、更高的计算能力、更宽的带宽和更好的可用性。他们全天候可用，即使他们的移动设备由于连接不良或简单地关闭而离线。该项目支持的应用程序在医疗保健、安全或社交互动等领域为社会带来了实质性的好处。例如，移动分布式应用程序将允许用户或卫生机构在早期阶段监测和阻止流行病的传播。用户移动设备和代理可以地区性地协作以作出本地化决策，以提高可扩展性和保密性。除了更大的社会效益外，这个项目还使校园里许多传统上服务不足的学生群体受益，他们参与了研究、开发和测试。该项目的基础性成果被纳入新的移动云计算研究生课程。通过利用现有的高中生科技教育计划，为高中生开设了一门新的移动应用编程课程。该项目的目标是设计、构建和研究移动云系统架构，使移动用户能够有效和高效地协作应用程序。本项目期望的新的研究成果是：(1)能够在移动设备和代理的组合上有效执行分布式应用的编程模型和中间件；(2)自动和动态的应用划分技术，以在移动设备和代理之间划分应用；(3)执行代理管理的云服务：代理虚拟机映像的可扩展存储、代理请求协同调度和移动数据的存储管理；(4)隐私保护协议，其利用额外的云提供商来保证增强的用户数据隐私水平，同时保持在非私有协议中实现的大部分功能；(5)使用代理云和Android手机/平板电脑的原型；(6)一套具有代表性的应用程序。原型和应用程序将在大规模用户研究中进行测试。为了促进结果的传播，代理源代码将公开提供。此外，行业实验室的研究人员被邀请参加在校园组织的研讨会，以鼓励合作和寻求技术转移机会。

This project investigates how cloud computing can support mobile distributed computing, in which users' mobile devices interact with each other to provide a large spectrum of collaborative applications for mobile computing and sensing. A surrogate is a per-user software entity in the cloud that acts on behalf of the user's mobile devices. Surrogates have larger storage capacity, higher compute power, wider bandwidth, and better availability than mobile devices. They are available 24x7, even when their mobile devices are offline because of poor connectivity or simply turned off. The applications enabled by this project have a substantial benefit for society in areas such as healthcare, safety, or social interaction. For example, a mobile distributed application would allow users or health agencies to monitor and stop, in early stages, the spread of epidemic diseases. The user mobile devices and surrogates may collaborate regionally to make localized decisions for improved scalability and privacy. In addition to the larger societal benefits, this project benefits many traditionally under-served student groups on campus which are involved in research, development, and testing. The foundational results of this project are incorporated into a new graduate course on Mobile Cloud Computing. A new course on Mobile Application Programming is offered to high school students by leveraging an existing program for educating high school students in science and technology.The aim of this project is to design, build, and study a mobile-cloud system architecture that enables effective and efficient collaborative applications for mobile users. The novel research outcomes expected from this project are: (1) a programming model and a middleware that enable effective execution of distributed applications on a combination of mobile devices and surrogates; (2) automatic and dynamic application partitioning techniques to divide the application between the mobile devices and the surrogate; (3) cloud services that perform surrogate management: scalable storage for surrogate virtual machine images, surrogate request co-scheduling, and storage management for mobile data; (4) privacy-preserving protocols that leverage additional cloud providers to guarantee an enhanced level of user data privacy, while maintaining most of the functionality achieved in the non-private protocols; (5) a prototype using an surrogate cloud and Android phones/tablets; and (6) a set of representative applications. The prototype and applications will be tested in a large scale user study. To spur the dissemination of results, the surrogate source code will be made publicly available. Furthermore, researchers from industry labs are invited to workshops organized on campus to encourage collaboration and seek technology transfer opportunities.