Mobile Application Acceleration using Always On Overlay

1. Mobile Application Acceleration usingAlways On Overlay Sarit Mukherjee (sarit@bell-labs.com) (with Girish Chandranmenon, Fang Hao, Scott Miller, Mark Smith) Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent

2. Mobile Content & Applications Market • Service Providers desire to maximize revenue per bit on shared wireless data channels • Mobile Experience is different from PC/Wireline world • Limited devices: screen, processing, battery, input methods • Shared/Limited Bandwidth over wireless channels • Constantly improving however always lags by PC/Wireline by factor of 10 (or better) • Different User Expectation on types of services accessed through mobile • Compelling on-the-go applications with instant/low latency access (Always On experience) • Community-based interactive apps (gets benefits of viral marketing) • Simple, easy-to-use, user experience – access with few clicks • Direct porting of PC/wireline world applications does not guarantee success • Subscriber willingness to pay is affected by several factors: Network performance, user interface, application/content access time, quality/relevance of application/content Mobile Applications/Content Success Must Target the Mobile Market With Technology that Addresses the Uniqueness of Wireless Service Delivery

3. Application/Content Provider Issues • Complicated Software for user management, scalability, community enablement, standard protocols & message passing with support elements • Not easy to control introduction of new content to users – many players in the chain, manual intro Service Provider Network used as bit-pipe Presence Profile Group Mgmt Presence Presence Presence Profile Profile Profile End-User Issues • Non-uniform user experience for different services • Multiple Logins • Complicated menus and multi-level navigation • Long service setup and content delivery delays • No personalization – one portal for all Lobby Lobby Group Mgmt Mobile Application Delivery: Current Issues Independent Application-specific silos Service Provider Issues • High capex/opex to deploy and manage vertical application infrastructure silos that duplicate many functions • Difficult to introduce new services and advertise to subscribers • Frequent and unoptimized over-the-air message exchanges • Network used largely as dumb pipe • Managing & Scaling large numbers of diverse servers & 3rd Party Content/Application Providers Gaming Vendor#1 Gaming Vendor #2 Video Many Client Applications Individually Downloaded Mobile Users

4. 3G Network User Application Servers AoG AoG AoG Content delivery and application execution within network & endpoints Addressing the Problems • Solution: Overlay network of “Always On Gateways” offering common middleware for many applications Bring part of application logic closer to user • Cache key information closer to user: • User Profile Data • Application Data • Proactively obtain state information • Common Application Building Blocks • Zero sign-on authentication • Reduces delay, improves scalability, saves air-link resources Combination of Techniques used in AoG • Network resident client agent that acts on behalf of user • Cached information for execution at network edge • Improved User Experience with dynamically generated shortcut and “one-click” UI screens • Self-management & load balancing w/ P2P networking • Hooks into underlying network for optimized application experience • Optimized community services provides a uniform platform for use by different services and users Overlay Network of Identical AoG nodes

5. Push-to-Game without Always-On Overlay Network • User • 1 Sets up a session with game server (for each game) • 2 Authenticates with game server (for each game) • 3 Enters a game lobby in game server (for each game) • 4 Joins a chat session (for each game) • 5 Uses game specific interaction for communication • Game Server • 1 Authenticates user • 2 Provides lobby and chat services • 3 Maintains user account and billing, presence information and buddy lists • 4 Executes game play interaction with user • 5 Saves post-game play info: ranking, stats, billing 3G Network User Game Servers

6. User Agent Community Services • User Initialization & Client • Sets up a single always-on session with AoG • Authenticates once with AoG • Common Gaming Launchpad • AoG (User Agent) • Downloads and caches user’s profile • Dynamically generates Gaming Shortcut screen • - Cached buddy presence info • - Past game play history • - Service Provider advertised games • AoG (Community Services) • Maintains presence information for buddy-based game play • Gaming “Lobby” for anonymous game play • Lobby uses local matching first then expands to other AoGs • Attribute-based pairing of players • Interfaces to game server for session start/stop Push-to-Game with Always-On Overlay Network: Removing Interactions & Complexity from Game Server/Vendor Adding Value into the Service Provider’s Network • User • 1 Sets up a session with game server (for each game) • 2 Authenticates with game server (for each game) • 3 Enters a game lobby in game server (for each game) • 4 Joins a chat session (for each game) • 5 Uses game specific interaction for communication • Game Server • 1 Authenticates user • 2 Provides lobby and chat services • 3 Maintains user account and billing, presence information and buddy lists • 4 Executes game play interaction with user • 5 Saves post-game play info: ranking, stats, billing         3G Network User Game Servers AoG AoG AoG AoG = Always-on Gateway

7. With vs. Without Application Acceleration:Gaming Test Result Test Results for Same Game & Same Game Server accessed through UMTS with and without Always-On Overlay * Measured in number of clicks to get players aligned and the game at the start point ** Measured time up to the game’s start point

8. Experimental Test-bed using Public 3G Network Same LAN Same cell Wireless Service Provider Network AoG Game Server Game Server Internet Internet Corporate LAN outside firewall

9. Game Server Game Server Experimental Test-bed using Private 3G Network Same cell AoG AoG Private 3G Wireless Network Internet AoG Corporate LAN inside firewall

10. Game Server Game Server Game Server Possible Experimental Test-bed using Slice on GENI AoG AoG AoG AoG AoG

11. Comparison of Different Test-beds