Reports

WebPod: Persistent Web Browsing Sessions with Pocketable Storage Devices

Potter, Shaya; Nieh, Jason

We present WebPod, a portable device for managing web browsing sessions. WebPod leverages capacity improvements in portable solid state memory devices to provide a consistent environment to access the web. WebPod provides a thin virtualization layer that decouples a user's web session from any particular end-user device, allowing users freedom to move their work environments around. We have implemented a prototype in Linux that works with existing unmodified applications and operating system kernels. Our experimental results demonstrate that WebPod has very low virtualization overhead and can provide a full featured web browsing experience, including support for all helper applications and plug-ins one expects. WebPod is able to efficiently migrate a user's web session. This enables improved user mobility while maintaining a consistent work environment.

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Academic Units
Computer Science
Publisher
Department of Computer Science, Columbia University
Series
Columbia University Computer Science Technical Reports, CUCS-047-04
Published Here
April 22, 2011