1IETF 63, Remote UI BoF

1
WiDeX Problem Statement

• Dean Willis ltdean.willis_at_softarmor.comgt
• Vlad Stirbu ltvlad.stirbu_at_nokia.comgt
• RUI BoF, IETF 63, Paris
• August 2nd , 2005

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What is Remote UI?

• A mechanism that enables user interfaces to be
  rendered on other devices than those that have
  the application logic.

Remote UI Server
Remote UI Client
UI Semantics
Application logic
Processed Input Information
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Remote UI Alternatives Now

• Framebuffer-level VNC, RDP, Hot Desk
• Server framebuffer is copied across the network
  to a framebuffer on the client
• Graphics-level X Windows
• Drawing request to the graphical device interface
  (GDI) copied across the network
• The client is interpreting these commands and
  renders in its framebuffer

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Ecosystem Devices
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Ecosystem User Interfaces
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Highly Diverse Ecosystem

• Physical characteristics
• screen size and ratio
• color depth
• User Interface characteristics
• windowing system and widget sets
• input methods

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Challenges

• How to describe the user interface in terms of
  widgets?
• How to find matches between UI servers and
  clients?
• How to start UI remoting sessions?
• How to keep the UI synchronised?

Out of Scope
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Some Answers

• UI descriptions
• W3C markup languages XHTML, XHTML SVG, etc.
• Discovery session setup
• IETF MMUSIC, ZeroConf

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WiDeX Goal Scope

• Specify an open, platform-independent method for
  use in an IP-basednetwork to convey
  initialisation, update and eventing information
  aboutuser-visible objects, i.e. widgets.
• Network plumbing
• Connectivity. e.g. NATs, firewalls
• Security
• Reliability
• UI remoting management
• URI definition
• Session-Transaction model
• Synchronisation
• Events

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WiDeX Requirements Assumptions

• Protocol must have a modular architecture
• UI semantic independent
• Discovery and session setup mechanism independent
• Privacy concerns must be addressed, e.g. P3P
• Protocol must support server initiated updates
• Full screen updates
• Incremental updates
• Protocol must support client initiated updates
• The protocol must have support for authentication
  and secure sessions
• Existing protocols should be reused when
  appropriate