Measuring the Multimedia Performance
of Server-Based Computing
Jason Nieh
Columbia University
&
S. Jae Yang
Ziff-Davis Media, Inc.
Abstract:
The server-based computing (SBC) model is becoming an
increasingly popular approach for delivering computational
services with reduced administrative costs and better
resource utilization. In this paper, we examine how effectively
SBC architectures support multimedia applications.
We focus on the effectiveness of the remote display protocol
used in three popular SBC platforms for supporting
video applications, Citrix Metaframe, Windows Terminal
Server, and AT&T VNC. Our results show that SBC can be
a viable approach for delivering VCR-quality video in
LAN environments, but that existing solutions are inadequate
at network access bandwidths found in broadband
environments. Our results also show that SBC can deliver
video with comparable network efficiency as streaming
media solutions. We show that there is wide variation in
the performance of the remote display technologies and
discuss the factors that influence their performance.