ETSI GS MTC 009 V1.1.1 (2010-05)

Mobile Thin Client (MTC); Architecture

DGS/MTC-0002 Arch

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 06-May-2010
• Technical Committee: MTC - Mobile Thin Client
• Current Stage: 12 - Completion
• Due Date: 18-May-2010
• Completion Date: 07-May-2010

Standards Content (Sample)

ETSI GS MTC 009 V1.1.1 (2010-05)
Group Specification


Mobile Thin Client (MTC);
Architecture

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2 ETSI GS MTC 009 V1.1.1 (2010-05)



Reference
DGS/MTC-0002 Arch
Keywords
access, adaptation, architecture, mobile,
multimedia, remote
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Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 4
Foreword . 4
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 References . 5
2.1 Normative references . 5
2.2 Informative references . 5
3 Definitions and abbreviations . 5
3.1 Definitions . 5
3.2 Abbreviations . 6
4 High-level architecture . 6
4.1 Overview . 6
4.2 Basic Building Blocks . 7
4.3 Philosophy of the architecture . 8
5 Functional Architecture . 9
5.1 General Overview. 9
5.2 Elaboration of the architecture . 9
5.2.1 Introduction to the Architecture . 9
5.2.2 Top level architecture description (level 0) . 10
5.2.2.1 Network considerations . 10
5.2.2.2 End point considerations . 11
5.2.2.3 Self Management . 12
5.2.2.4 Self Data . 12
5.2.2.5 Top level view of the architecture . 12
5.2.2.6 Top level architecture . 13
5.2.3 Level one architecture description . 14
5.2.3.1 End-to-end communications . 14
5.2.3.2 Mobile Thin Server and its hosting environment . 15
5.2.3.3 System architecture: level one. 16
5.2.3.4 Level one architecture . 17
5.2.4 Level two architecture description . 17
5.2.4.1 Introduction to level two . 17
5.2.4.2 Architecture of TCSC . 18
5.2.4.3 Level two architecture . 18
Annex A (informative): Scenario mapping . 20
History . 23

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Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (http://webapp.etsi.org/IPR/home.asp).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This Group Specification (GS) has been produced by ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG) Mobile Thin client
Computing (MTC).
Introduction
The present document is intended to define a technical framework of the mobile thin client system architecture. This
includes basic building blocks, components detailed at different levels and appropriate interfaces between them.
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1 Scope
The present document presents the architecture for a mobile thin client system, consistent with the requirements
articulated in the work item "Mobile thin client system requirements" of the MTC ISG. The deliverable first describes a
high-level architecture, in order to position the approach taken, and subsequently details the functional architecture at
three different levels. Components and their interactions are identified, together with their interfaces. Non-normative
scenarios indicating a possible implementation of the required functionality, are included as annex to the present
document.
2 References
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
2.1 Normative references
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
[1] ETSI MTC 008: " Mobile Thin Client (MTC); Use Cases and Requirements".
2.2 Informative references
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
Not applicable.
3 Definitions and abbreviations
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions apply:
Service Management Framework (SMF): to manage the thin client service, a whole range of management
components are required (such as authentication and authorization, network management, business management,
session management, server management, monitoring, etc.). The collection of these management components is called
the Service Management Framework (SMF). It should be noted that for scalability and efficiency reasons, the
components of the SMF will be distributed. Some of the management components will run on the client, some on the
server hosting the thin client session and some on dedicated management servers
thin client protocol: is responsible for delivering user input (such as keystrokes, mouse events but also data from for
example webcams, etc.) to the server and sending audiovisual output from the server to the client
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thin client service: is a service offering remote execution of applications. While the application logic is actually
running on a remote server, output is transmitted to the terminal the user interacts with. Likewise, the user input is
captured at the terminal, and transmitted to the remote server for proper handling. This basic service can be
supplemented with additional functionalities, such as authentication, remote data storage and management, automatic
application installation, etc.
3.2 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
ADS Application Delivery Service
DSS Data Storage Service
E2E End to End
E2EAUTHN End to End authentication
E2EAUTHZ End to End authorization
E2ECONN End to End connection
E2ELOGISTICS End to End logistics
ENV ENVironment
ESS Entity Subscription Service
I Interface
MTC Mobile Thin Client (implementing the client part of the service)
MTH Mobile client Hosting environment
MTS Mobile Thin Server (implementing the server part of the service)
NET NETwork
NETC NETwork Control
QOS Quality of Service
SDM Self Data Manager
SLM Self Logistics Manager
SMF Service Management Framework
TCS Thin Client Service
TCSC Thin client service core
TCSCC Thin client service core core (i.e. the core of the TCSC)
4 High-level architecture
4.1 Overview
In Figure 1, the high-level software architecture is illustrated. Six basic building blocks can be distinguished: the Mobile
Thin Client, the Mobile Thin Server, the Service Management Framework, the Network Control, the Data Storage
Service and the Application Delivery Service.

Figure 1: High-level software architecture
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In Figure 1, only one client (i.e. Mobile Thin Client) and one server (i.e. Mobile Thin Server) are visualized. The
multi-user aspect of the architecture is shown in Figure 2. Multiple clients can be connected to the same physical Thin
Client Server running a separate User Session for each connected user. To monitor and manage the Thin Client Server,
a part of the Service Management Framework (i.e. the Thin Client Server Management component) is installed at every
Thin Client Server. The Mobile Thin Server runs on top of the Thin Client Server Operating System.

Figure 2: Multi-user aspect of the system Architecture
4.2 Basic Building Blocks
From a high-level perspective, the functionality of the 6 basic blocks is summarized Table 1. In clause 5, an exhaustive
description of the functionality of all basic blocks will be discussed.
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Table 1: Basic building blocks of architecture
Basic Building Block Description
Mobile Thin Client This is the software running on the mobile client device. When a user wants to start
the thin client service, he starts this client on his thin client device.
Service Management When a user logs in, he has to identify himself to the SMF, which is responsible for
Framework (SMF) managing the complete thin client service and guaranteeing the desired QoS to the
users. The components of the SMF are distributed over the different building blocks.
Mobile Thin Server This is the software running on the Thin Client Server selected by the SMF. All
applications of the users are executed in their Mobile Thin Server. Audiovisual
output from a user's applications is transported over the network to the user's
device. Input from the user is transported in the opposite direction.
Network Control This is the service of the network operator. The SMF will interact with the Network
Control block to set the appropriate QoS classes for the traffic between the Mobile
Thin Client and the Mobile Thin Server.
Data Storage Service This service maintains the personal data of the users.
Application Delivery Service For scalability reasons (not every application should be installed in every Mobile
Thin Server), applications are delivered by an application delivery service to the
Mobile Thin Server.

4.3 Philosophy of the architecture
A first introduction of the system architecture is shown in Figure 3. Details on the functional aspects of the system
architecture will be given in clause 5. Two major components can be distinguished: the Mobile Thin Client (MTC) and
the Mobile Thin Server (MTS). Both entities communicate with each other over the network and exchange thin client
protocol messages and management data. The architecture is quite symmetric, with some additional components on the
MTS side to support specific services (e.g. data storage service).

Figure 3: Overview of the System Architecture
A short description of the components of Figure 3 is given in Table 2. Note that the functionality or implementation
might differ between the MTC and MTS side. This rather high-level description can help the reader to understand the
composition of the overall system architecture.
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Table 2: Components of the System Architecture
TCSC_E2ECONN Starts a connection between MTC and MTS, and thus acts as a portal to the system.
TCSC_E2EAUTHN Authentication of MTS and MTC.
TCSC_E2EAUTHZ Authorization of MTS and MTC.
TCSC_E2ELOGISTICS Negotiates session settings, reserves resources, …
MTS_MON Monitors the state of the MTS.
MTS_ADM Handles administration tasks.
MTS_NET (De)packetizes data, sends and receives network packets (general network
functionality), including network control functionality.
MTS_SDM Contains data about the system, and provides a means for interacting with it.
MTS_SLM Handles self management tasks such as resilience.
MTS_DSS Endpoint to deal with data storage service.
MTS_ADS Handles application delivery from application delivery service.
MTS_ESS Handles access to the entity subscription service.
MTS_BUS Provides required information for external business systems.
TCSCC Handles the core communication between MTC and MTS. This basically means the thin
client protocol communication, functionally equivalent to e.g. VNC. RDP, NX, …

5 Functional Architecture
5.1 General Overview
As already stated in the requirement document [1], the mobile thin client service as an entity would operate within the
following three main environments:
The Terminal Device environment is composed of the terminal hardware and software. This is the environment where
the Mobile Thin Client will operate.
The Hosting environment is the environment, where the Mobile Thin Server will operate. This environment is
supposed to provide components that are not included in the system scope but that are necessary for the Mobile Thin
Server to communicate with the external world. For instance, components needed for configuring routers are not in the
scope of the system. Another example is that the service should provide billing data to external billing systems but
should not include a billing system. So if a billing system is needed it should be considered as part of the envir
...