{"id":274551,"date":"2016-08-11T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/?p=274551"},"modified":"2016-08-17T15:00:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T22:00:25","slug":"long-term-collaboration-takes-aim-mobile-browsing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/blog\/long-term-collaboration-takes-aim-mobile-browsing\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-term collaboration takes aim at mobile browsing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lily Sun<\/a>, Research Program Manager, Microsoft Research Asia<\/em><\/p>\n

As mobile browsing continues to consume an ever larger share of Internet services, the stakes of improving the mobile user experience have never been greater.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the reasons that Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) and Peking University are\u00a0embarking on a joint project to raise the quality of user experience (QoE) for mobile browsers. Building on the success of earlier collaborations, MSRA researcher Yunxin Liu will once again join forces with Xuanzhe Liu, associate professor at the university\u2019s School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science.<\/p>\n

The mobile experience<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s common sentiment that the QoE of mobile web browsing is far from satisfying. Mobile browsers suffer from the redundant transfer of resources, which leads to duplicated data transmission, long page load time, and high energy drain.<\/p>\n

Building a collaborative team<\/strong><\/p>\n

Representing their organizations, Yunxin and Xuanzhe have jointly conducted various in-depth studies covering mobile web performance, Android OS latency, human-computer interactions, and related technologies. After first winning a Microsoft Fellowship in 2007, Xuanzhe came to MSRA in 2013 as \u201cStar-Track\u201d Young Visiting Professor.<\/p>\n

The two researchers co-authored a number of papers (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> presented at top conferences such as the International World Wide Web Conference\u00a0(WWW), and published in leading journals including IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and IEEE Transactions on Services Computing. Together they\u2019ve fostered a strong, sustained relationship between the two organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our collaborations, Microsoft Research, as a leader in operating system research and industry, is able to provide first-hand, real-world users’ requirements and industry resources, where we can explore valuable and interesting problems to tackle\u201d, says Xuanzhe. \u201cFurthermore, collaborating with top researchers in Microsoft Research greatly helps promote the rapid growth of my students. Working with Dr. Yunxin Liu and other colleagues from the System Research Group is really an invaluable opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Xuanzhe

Xuanzhe Liu and Yunxin Liu<\/p><\/div>\n

Solving the puzzle of web cache performance <\/strong><\/p>\n

The team\u2019s focus on QoE issues in mobile web browsing has led to some key findings. Research papers published in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and WWW showed mobile web browsing currently suffers from an imperfect cache mechanism. The studies \u2014 based on analyzing 1 month of version traces for more than 100 popular web apps \u2014 pinpoint three root causes for the weak mobile web cache performance:<\/p>\n