Analysis Of Various Techniques

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

ABSTRACT

The paper explores the different techniques involved in Desktop Sharing. The techniques are reviewed on the basis of many parameters which include bandwidth rate, efficiency in transmission, real-time response, quality of information transmitted. To understand the complexities and notions of the topic clearly, various topics have been touched upon. The paper describes various ways in which sharing of screens, and files are improved. People involved in the sharing can be connected via any network.

KEYWORDS

Desktop sharing techniques, application sharing, authentication

1. INTRODUCTION

Desktop sharing is a common name for technologies and products that allow remote access and remote collaboration on a person's computer desktop through a graphical Terminal emulator. This technique is very widely used for remote connection between two computers. Desktop sharing enables a host to view the activities of another host, connected through the same network, i.e., the Internet.

This paper, by using a trustworthy, rigorous, and auditable methodology, provides a documentation, which is aimed at presenting a fair evaluation of research concerning Desktop sharing techniques and efficiency. The articles published in journals and conference proceedings of the defined area are of concern in this review. The motive behind this selection is quite logical in the sense that the techniques that are discussed in literature might reflect their suitability for the prevailing software environment of today and are believed to fulfill the needs of the future in sight.

2.BACKGROUND

Application and desktop sharing allows sharing any application with one or more people over the Internet. The participants receive the screen-view of the shared application from the server. Their mouse and keyboard events are delivered and regenerated at the server. Application and desktop sharing enables collaborative work, software tutoring and e-learning over the Internet. Challenges of a typical Application and desktop sharing include: efficient and reliable (in the sense that it should transmit only the changed parts of the screen and it should not consume all the resources while doing this, participants will end up with corrupted screen-views if the system is not designed reliability in mind, operating system independent (because participants can use different operating systems, scales well (because some sharing scenarios such as e-learning and software tutoring may consist of several simultaneous participants)[1]. For example, Team viewer allows full control of a remote PC thus, providing with an option to completely bypass the firewall control [4]. This poses security issues while sharing. The security is based on the difficulty of Discrete Logarithm Problem. According to Hung-Min Sun, he formulated a technique to overcome the problem by using a one-way function [5]. He devised a practice which used a 64 bits password length, while Leslie Lamport used 1024 bits for the same purpose [15].

2.1. Graphical Desktop Sharing Software (GDSS)

One of the major motives behind this was due to the expansion of broadband network access. A huge amount of data is present in internet traffic which requires an understanding of a user behavior workload. GDSS enables users far off from each other to interact simultaneously with a single desktop [3]. The causes for success of GDSS are that some include easy and single point administration of servers, and low costs of thin clients. Another basis for reading about GDSS is that it requires high Quality of Service (QoS). GDSS desires interactive response; smooth streaming of videos, no noise disturbance. It also ensures continuous transfer of data over the Internet. This concept is similar to remote login on the basis of user behavior and workload characteristics.

2.2.Online Meeting Tool for Low Bandwidths

The focus to discuss about this notion is how the user experience can be positively enhanced despite networking problems, with a specific focus on the priority that is assigned to services and features in order to offer the best trade-off between quality and utility. These comprise public packet-switched network with a relatively high probability of loss, random delay in packet delivery, amount of bandwidth available. However, there exist some limitations; for example, real-time communication is difficult to achieve for slow internet connections as they aggravate the problem. As a service relying on the Internet, a Web meeting tool is directly impacted by underlying networking problems such as those that occur as a result of limited bandwidth. Web meeting tool must emphasize on user satisfaction and experience [7].

2.3.Motivation of Screen Sharing

Screen sharing can also be useful in Web-based meetings to complement presentations, i.e., to further demonstrate an idea or show an example of a product. However, most screen sharing application does not work well with low bandwidth as the presenter’s screen image has to be streamed across the network, thus motivating the need for screen sharing techniques that are more appropriate for low bandwidth environments.

2.4.Virtual Network Computing (VNC)

In computing, Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop sharing system that uses the RFB protocol (remote frame buffer) to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction, over a network. VNC is platform-independent – a VNC viewer on one operating system may connect to a VNC server on the same or any other operating system. There are clients and servers for many GUI-based operating systems and for Java. Multiple clients may connect to a VNC server at the same time. Popular uses for this technology include remote technical support and accessing files on one's work computer from one's home computer, or vice versa. The VNC server is an application on the machine that shares its resources. The VNC client is an application that watches and accesses the VNC server. With the client, a user can see the desktop of the remote machine and control it with the local mouse and keyboard. Multiple users can connect to the same server at the same time through VNC clients. The VNC authentication uses the one-time private key. Several actions of various servers are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Several Class names action of VNC server

Class

Action

VncServer

It makes instances and threads of other objects and handles them.

VncClient

It communicates with a client. It processes received RFB protocol message from a client, sends processed result of a remote system to a client.

VncClientList

It is a list of VncClient.

VncProperties

It processes the VNC server configuration

3.ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS

Various desktop sharing techniques are studied and classified on the basis of various parameters.

3.1.Proposed features of an efficient system

Clients with Limited Bandwidth

For slow internet connections or with low bandwidth, the transmission of information must take place in a half-duplex mode. This reduces the channel bandwidth by half. To prevent the users from transferring data simultaneously, a floor control is included. Some clients may prefer to buffer the multimedia first before playing it. The desktop sharing software must consist of ways to integrate features like this. These would make a competent system for everyone to use.

Real-time response: Real-time response is one of the most desired features as it is directly proportional to the user experience. It has many advantages in tele-teaching. This has made possible real-time collaboration, lecture recording, screen recording, distance learning which makes it lively to work with [10]. Before this came, the lectures were transmitted online.

3.2.Comparison of Various Software

In this section, a comparison of various desktop sharing software is considered, which are widely used. Various parameters have been chosen to decide which might be the best. Several actions of various servers are shown in Table 2.The parameters used have also been defined as follows:

(1) Listening mode means when a server connects to a viewer, The server site does not have to configure its firewall/NAT to allow access on port 5900 (or 5800); the onus is on the viewer, which is useful if the server site has no computer expertise, while the viewer user would be expected to be more knowledgeable.

(2) Audio Support: the remote control software transfers audio signals across the network and plays the audio through the speakers attached to the local computer. For example, music playback software normally sends audio signals to the locally attached speakers, via some sound controller hardware. If the remote control software package supports audio transfer, the playback software can run on the remote computer, while the music can be heard from the local computer, as though the software were running locally.

(3) File Transfer: the software allows the user to transfer files between the local and remote computers, from within the client software's user interface.

(4) Remote Assistance: remote and local users are able to view the same screen at the same time, so remote user can assist a local user.

(5) Access Permission Request: local user should approve a remote access session start.

(6)NAT Pass-through: the ability to connect to the server behind a NAT without configuring the router's port forwarding rules. It gives an advantage when you cannot configure router (for example it is on Internet service provider's side), but is a serious security risk (unless the traffic is end-to-end encrypted), because all the traffic should pass through some proxy server which in most cases is owned by remote access application's writers.

4.PROPOSED WORK

As per the detailed study and analysis of various desktop sharing techniques, various parameters for efficient transmission of data have been studied. The main and most important feature that could be implemented is the one of improving the web server. If it is used a server which can handle a lot of data, the application would improve considerably. Moreover, another important feature that could be improved is the one that users on both ends should not rely on IP addresses to share their machines; it would not be very user-friendly. Normally the user doesn't know his/her IP address, and looking for it is not very comfortable for non-experienced computer users. With the implementation way chosen, anyone, even though without any computer skills, can share their screen and communicate with the other end. This would be augmenting a lot the user experience and improving the application purpose.

Table 2: Comparative analysis of various desktop sharing techniques

Software

Client/

Server/

Listening

File Transfer

Audio Support

Multiple Sessions

Remote Assistance

Access Permission Request

NAT Passthrough

Apple Remote Desktop

Client & Server

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Chrome Remote Desktop

Client & Server

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

GoToMyPC

Not Known

Yes

Yes

Not Known

Yes

Yes

Not Known

Mac HelpMate

Client & Server

No

No

Yes

Not Known

Not Known

Not Known

Real VNC Free

Client & Server & Listening

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes, using Listening mode

Remote Screen

Client & Server & Listening

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Teamviewer

Client & Server

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes, Client & Server

CONCLUSION

The paper reconnoitered the diverse techniques involved in Desktop Sharing. The techniques were reviewed on the basis of many parameters which include Listening mode, Audio Support, File Transfer, Remote Assistance, Access Permission Request, NAT Pass-through etc. These parameters are studied keeping in mind simplicity in achieving real time collaboration. The application to be developed should not only be highly efficient but should be user-friendly. It is likely that the number of employees working from home or remotely will continue to grow. This means that remote access is an area where technology will continue to develop. More and more organizations have implemented remote access because there are so many benefits. By using remote access organizations can become more flexible and improve the way in which people work. This is because people are no longer restricted to using a desktop PC at the office but have the capability to travel or work remotely while still having the benefits using the organizations IT infrastructure or access data on their own home PC without actually being sitting in front of it!

FUTURE SCOPE

As future work, we would suggest to improve the features of the application, such as being able to share only one application instead of the entire desktop. Another improvement would be to, instead of the need to open a new webpage application in the browser every time the desktop wants to be shared, to create a semi-transparent slide which appeared in front of the user's working environment (e.g. Gmail). Disappearing it when the sharing began, remaining only a small button to stop sharing. This technology is supposed to grow up as it is likely that the number of employees working from home or remote locations will continue to grow. This means that remote access is an area where technology will continue to develop.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We are highly grateful to our mentor, Ms Manju Khari. She gave us moral support and guided us in different matters regarding the paper and related work. She has been very kind and patient while suggesting us with various ideas and outlines to improve the project and clearing our doubts. This project was only possible because of her faith in us.

Lastly, we would also like to thank our parents and friends who helped us by being there for us. We would not have been able to complete our project without their emotional support. They provided us with various resources to help us better understand. We would like to thank all the people who assisted us and made this project a success.