Inproceedings,
Performance Comparison of Windows-based Thin-Client Architectures
Proc. of the Australasian Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference 2007, Christchurch, New Zealand, (December 2007)
Abstract
The basic idea behind thin-client architectures is
to run applications on a central server instead of installing
them separately on each client. The Windows Remote Desktop
Protocol (RDP) and the Citrix Presentation Server are two well
known approaches to separate the location of where the user
input is processed from the computer he is actually working
on. While both alternatives solve the same problem, they rely
on significantly different mechanisms to handle the exchange of
user input and screen updates between client and server.
In this paper we therefore compare the performance of both
protocols under different aspects. In particular, we study the load
caused on network layer as well as the satisfaction of the end
user with the service quality achieved by the different terminal
services. As this performance heavily depends on the current
network conditions, we emulate realistic scenarios in a controlled
testbed environment and measure the time required for typical
office tasks on application layer. As a result, we quantify the
Quality-of-Experience (QoE) perceived by the end-user, compare
the overhead required by the different available protocols, and
unveil their advantages and disadvantages. Our results can be
used to decide which protocol to use in which scenario.
