Using User-Level Virtualization in Desktop Grid Clients for Application Delivery and Sandboxing

Abstract

Desktop grid is a form of distributed computing that harvests the computing power of idle desktop computers whether these are volunteers or deployed at an institution. This paper proposes to design and implement a client-end framework of desktop grid, based on cloud storage, which can also deliver legacy applications on-demand to volunteer machines. From technical viewpoint, an isolated execution environment based on user-level virtualization will be achieved: on one side, some resource-accessing APIs for applications are intercepted and redirected to real storage positions (on the cloud); therefore legacy applications can run without installation to simplify maintenance. On the other side, this mechanism can also construct a sandbox to restrict the access range of applications for security. This proposal adopts promising cloud-related technologies for requirements of volunteer computing, tests show that it only causes limited performance loss.