1 IETF 63, Remote UI BoF

WiDeX Problem Statement

Dean Willis <dean.willis@softarmor.com>

Vlad Stirbu <vlad.stirbu@nokia.com>

RUI BoF, IETF 63, Paris

August 2nd , 2005

2 IETF63, Remote UI BoF

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

Applicationlogic

UI Semantics

Processed Input Information

3 IETF63, Remote UI BoF

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

4 IETF63, Remote UI BoF

Ecosystem: Devices

5 IETF63, Remote UI BoF

Ecosystem: User Interfaces

6 IETF63, Remote UI BoF

Highly Diverse Ecosystem

• Physical characteristics• screen size and ratio

• color depth

• User Interface characteristics• windowing system and widget sets

• input methods

7 IETF63, Remote UI BoF

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 S

cope

8 IETF63, Remote UI BoF

Some Answers

• UI descriptions• W3C markup languages: XHTML, XHTML + SVG, etc.

• Discovery session setup• IETF: MMUSIC, ZeroConf

9 IETF63, Remote UI BoF

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

10 IETF63, Remote UI BoF

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