research-article

MobInsight: On Improving The Performance of Mobile Apps in Cellular Networks

Authors:

Dilip KrishnaswamyAuthors Info & Claims

WWW '15: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web

Pages 355 - 365

https://doi.org/10.1145/2736277.2741138

Published: 18 May 2015 Publication History

Abstract

It is well-known that the performance of Web-browsing as well as mobile applications (or apps) suffers on today's cellular networks. In this work, we perform a systematic measurement study of more than 50 popular apps and 2 cellular networks, and discover that while cellular networks have predictable latency, it is the path between exit points of cellular networks (e.g., GGSN) and cloud-servers that degrades apps performance. High latency and unpredictability over this path affects browsing and activity completion times of apps, worsening the performance by several magnitudes. Furthermore, we find that as the number of apps on mobile devices increases, cellular networks in turn suffer due to large number of active connections, primarily used for push notifications, experiencing heavy signaling overhead in the network. Towards accelerating the performance of apps and improving their operational efficiency, we envision an easy to deploy operator-managed platform, and study two architectural optimizations that sit at vantage points inside cellular networks: virtual app-server (vApp) and network-assisted, virtual push-notification server (vPNS). vApps improve apps' browsing experience while vPNSs take the burden of carrying periodic message off cellular networks. Using trace-driven simulations, we find that vApps can improve activity completion times by more than 3-fold, whereas vPNS can reduce the signaling load by a factor of 6 in cellular networks and reduce energy consumption by a factor of 2 on mobile devices.

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Cited By

Zuniga AFlores HLagerspetz ENurmi PTarkoma SHui PManner J(2019)Tortoise or Hare? Quantifying the Effects of Performance on Mobile App RetentionThe World Wide Web Conference10.1145/3308558.3313428(2517-2528)Online publication date: 13-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3308558.3313428
Xu MMa YLiu XLin FLiu YBarrett RCummings RAgichtein EGabrilovich E(2017)AppHolmesProceedings of the 26th International Conference on World Wide Web10.1145/3038912.3052645(143-152)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3038912.3052645
Gao YDong WZhang XWu W(2017)Universal path tracing for large-scale sensor networksIEEE INFOCOM 2017 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications10.1109/INFOCOM.2017.8057074(1-9)Online publication date: May-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/INFOCOM.2017.8057074
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

MobInsight: On Improving The Performance of Mobile Apps in Cellular Networks
1. Networks
  1. Network types
    1. Mobile networks
    2. Wireless access networks

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

WWW '15: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web

May 2015

1460 pages

ISBN:9781450334693

General Chairs:
Aldo Gangemi
National Research Council, Italy & Paris 13 University-CNRS, France
,
Stefano Leonardi
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
,
Alessandro Panconesi
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Copyright © 2015 Copyright is held by the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2).

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IW3C2: International World Wide Web Conference Committee

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SIGWEB: ACM Special Interest Group on Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Web

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International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee

Republic and Canton of Geneva, Switzerland

Publication History

Published: 18 May 2015

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WWW '15

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IW3C2

WWW '15: 24th International World Wide Web Conference

May 18 - 22, 2015

Florence, Italy

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WWW '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 131 of 929 submissions, 14%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,899 of 8,196 submissions, 23%

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Cited By

Zuniga AFlores HLagerspetz ENurmi PTarkoma SHui PManner J(2019)Tortoise or Hare? Quantifying the Effects of Performance on Mobile App RetentionThe World Wide Web Conference10.1145/3308558.3313428(2517-2528)Online publication date: 13-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3308558.3313428
Xu MMa YLiu XLin FLiu YBarrett RCummings RAgichtein EGabrilovich E(2017)AppHolmesProceedings of the 26th International Conference on World Wide Web10.1145/3038912.3052645(143-152)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3038912.3052645
Gao YDong WZhang XWu W(2017)Universal path tracing for large-scale sensor networksIEEE INFOCOM 2017 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications10.1109/INFOCOM.2017.8057074(1-9)Online publication date: May-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/INFOCOM.2017.8057074
Gao GWen YHu H(2017)QDLCoding: QoS-differentiated low-cost video encoding scheme for online video serviceIEEE INFOCOM 2017 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications10.1109/INFOCOM.2017.8057024(1-9)Online publication date: May-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/INFOCOM.2017.8057024
Gao YLuo YChen DHuang HDong WXia MLiu XBu J(2017)Every pixel counts: Fine-grained UI rendering analysis for mobile applicationsIEEE INFOCOM 2017 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications10.1109/INFOCOM.2017.8057023(1-9)Online publication date: May-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/INFOCOM.2017.8057023
Qian PWang NFoster GTafazolli R(2017)Enabling context-aware HTTP with mobile edge hint2017 14th IEEE Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC)10.1109/CCNC.2017.7983146(420-426)Online publication date: Jan-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/CCNC.2017.7983146
Kaup FMichelinakis FBui NWidmer JWac KHausheer D(2016)Assessing the Implications of Cellular Network Performance on Mobile Content AccessIEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management10.1109/TNSM.2016.254440213:2(168-180)Online publication date: Jun-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSM.2016.2544402

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