Popular applications such as email, image/video galleries, and file storage are increasingly being supported by ?cloud? platforms in residential, academia and industry communities. The next frontier for these user communities will be to transition ?traditional desktops? that have dedicated hardware and software configurations into ?virtual desktop clouds? that are accessible via thin clients. This project aims to develop optimal resource allocation frameworks and performance benchmarking tools that can enable building and managing thin-client based virtual desktop clouds at Internet-scale. Virtual desktop cloud experiments under realistic user and system loads will be conducted by leveraging multiple kinds of GENI resources such as aggregates, user opt-in mechanisms, measurement services and experimenter workflow tools. Project outcomes will help in minimizing costly cloud resource over-commitment, and in avoiding thin client protocol configuration guesswork, while delivering optimum user experience. Further, they will positively impact computer desktop user communities, GENI-like testbeds, and equipment vendors.
