Connection Bundling with HTTP: Supporting Interactive Applications through Web Browsers

Abstract

In a distributed environment, scientists using clusters, supercomputers, and the grid, may often find themselves in a place apart from the computing facilities. Therefore, controlling and steering interactive applications executing remotely requires a transport mechanism connecting the scientist's workstation with the remote computer. The concept presented in this paper only needs minimal prerequisites to fulfil this task. On the user side, a web browser executing a Java applet is sufficient, on the remote computer, a web server able to start the remote application is required. The "connecting bundling'' method presented herein allows demanding remote interactive applications to be controlled even in a restrictive network environment.