论文标题
AppStreamer:通过预测流来减少手机游戏的存储要求
AppStreamer: Reducing Storage Requirements of Mobile Games through Predictive Streaming
论文作者
论文摘要
存储已成为智能手机上的限制资源。游戏是移动设备上的一项流行活动,也是游戏数量的爆炸性增长以及其不断增长的尺寸有助于存储紧缩。即使存储丰富,也需要很长时间才能下载和安装重型应用程序才能启动。本文介绍了AppStreamer,这是一种用于减少手机游戏的存储要求或启动延迟的新技术,以及一般的重型移动应用程序。 AppStreamer基于直觉,即大多数应用都不需要任何一次的文件(图像,音频和视频剪辑等)。因此,AppStreamer可以在设备上只保留一小部分文件,类似于“缓存”,并在预测该应用程序在不久的将来需要它们时从云存储服务器或附近的边缘服务器下载其余部分。当用户使用该应用程序时,AppStreamer会不断预测不久的将来的文件块,并在用户由于缺少资源而看到档位之前将其从存储服务器中获取。我们在Android文件系统层实现AppStreamer。这样可以确保应用程序不需要源代码或修改,并且该方法跨应用程序概括。我们使用两个流行的游戏评估Appstreamer:Dead Export 2,3D第一人称射击游戏和Fire Emblem Heroes,这是一款基于2D转弯的策略角色扮演游戏。通过用户研究,分别有75%和87%的用户发现AppStreamer提供了与所有文件存储在设备上的基线相同的用户体验质量。 AppStreamer将死亡效果2和86%的Fire Emblem Heroes的存储要求减少了87%。
Storage has become a constrained resource on smartphones. Gaming is a popular activity on mobile devices and the explosive growth in the number of games coupled with their growing size contributes to the storage crunch. Even where storage is plentiful, it takes a long time to download and install a heavy app before it can be launched. This paper presents AppStreamer, a novel technique for reducing the storage requirements or startup delay of mobile games, and heavy mobile apps in general. AppStreamer is based on the intuition that most apps do not need the entirety of its files (images, audio and video clips, etc.) at any one time. AppStreamer can, therefore, keep only a small part of the files on the device, akin to a "cache", and download the remainder from a cloud storage server or a nearby edge server when it predicts that the app will need them in the near future. AppStreamer continuously predicts file blocks for the near future as the user uses the app, and fetches them from the storage server before the user sees a stall due to missing resources. We implement AppStreamer at the Android file system layer. This ensures that the apps require no source code or modification, and the approach generalizes across apps. We evaluate AppStreamer using two popular games: Dead Effect 2, a 3D first-person shooter, and Fire Emblem Heroes, a 2D turn-based strategy role-playing game. Through a user study, 75% and 87% of the users respectively find that AppStreamer provides the same quality of user experience as the baseline where all files are stored on the device. AppStreamer cuts down the storage requirement by 87% for Dead Effect 2 and 86% for Fire Emblem Heroes.