SBIR Phase I: Transparent Cloud Acceleration of Mobile Applications via Compressive Sensing

该小型企业创新研究计划(SBIR)第一阶段项目旨在开发一种软件系统，该系统可以透明且动态地将计算从移动设备卸载到云中，以加速移动应用程序。这种需求是显而易见的，因为软件需求已经超过了智能手机和平板电脑的硬件能力。然而，这样的系统仍然遥不可及，因为目前的技术实际上无法实现高应用响应所需的紧密设备-云耦合，特别是在现代移动设备的处理器、电池和网络限制下。压缩复制是一种基于压缩感知的新型连续数据复制方法，它可以通过实现如此紧密的耦合来填补这一技术空白。为了将压缩复制提升到适合商业产品和服务使用的水平，将进行技术工作，以调查和改进其编码/解码机制，为其量身定做有效的网络协议，并在原型中评估其真实世界的性能。这项可行性研究的预期结果是，该系统将展示通过透明云加速显著加快移动应用程序的速度。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是移动计算格局的转变。应用程序开发人员将被提供一种简单、有原则的方法和一个通用的、可重复使用的框架，用于开发与云的巨大资源紧密耦合的移动应用程序。反过来，这将释放出新一代移动应用，在复杂性、功能和参与度方面与当前的桌面或基于网络的应用相媲美，甚至超过它们。对于广大终端用户来说，这可能意味着通过更复杂的商业应用程序提高生产率，通过更身临其境的游戏获得更高质量的娱乐。对于残疾人来说，云加速将使辅助用户界面--特别是那些结合了计算密集型自然语言处理、手势识别和预测算法的界面--在移动设备上变得实用。拟议的系统也将是移动领域新经济活动的关键驱动力，因为与云的实时同步在一系列广泛的垂直市场领域开辟了新的机会，包括移动用户参与度分析、移动广告，甚至机器对机器(M2M)平台开发。简而言之，拟议的云加速技术将在许多方面产生重大的社会和经济影响。

This Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a software system that transparently and dynamically offloads computations from mobile devices to the cloud for the purpose of accelerating mobile applications. The need is clear, as software requirements are already outstripping the hardware capabilities of smartphones and tablets. However, such a system has remained out of reach since current technologies cannot practically achieve the tight device-cloud coupling required for high application responsiveness, especially under the processor, battery and network constraints of modern mobile devices. Compressive replication, a novel continuous data replication method based on compressive sensing, can fill this technology gap by enabling just such a tight coupling. To elevate compressive replication to a level suitable for use in a commercial product and service, technical work will be undertaken to survey and improve its encoding/decoding mechanisms, tailor efficient network protocols to it, and evaluate its real-world performance in a prototype. The anticipated result of this feasibility study is a system that will demonstrate significant speed-up of mobile applications through transparent cloud acceleration.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be a transformation of the mobile computing landscape. Application developers will be afforded a simple, principled method and a general, reusable framework for developing mobile applications that are tightly coupled to the vast resources of the cloud. In turn, this will unleash a new generation of mobile applications that rival, and even surpass, current desktop or web-based applications in sophistication, features and engagement. For end-users at large, it could mean greater productivity through more sophisticated business apps and higher quality entertainment through more immersive games. For disabled persons, cloud acceleration would make assistive user interfaces -- particularly those that combine computationally intensive natural language processing, gesture recognition, and predictive algorithms -- practical on mobile devices. The proposed system will also be a key driver of new economic activity in the mobile space, as real-time synchronization with the cloud opens up new opportunities in an extensive array of market verticals including, e.g., mobile user engagement analytics, mobile advertising, and even machine-to-machine (M2M) platform development. In short, the proposed cloud acceleration technology will have significant societal and economic impacts on many fronts.