On optimal mapping of visualization pipeline onto linear arrangement of network nodes

This paper discusses algorithmic and implementation aspects of optimally mapping a visualization pipeline onto a linear arrangement of wide-area network nodes to minimize the total delay. The first network node typically is a data source, the last node could be a display device ranging from a personal computer to a powerwall, and each intermediate node could be a workstation or computational cluster. This mapping scheme appropriately distributes the filtering, geometry generation, rendering, and display modules of the visualization pipeline onto the linear arrangement of network nodes to make an efficient use of the computing resources at end nodes and network bandwidths between them. Regression-based network daemons are developed to measure the available bandwidth between the network nodes. We present an analytical formulation of this problem by taking into account the computational power of nodes, bandwidths between them, and sizes of messages exchanged between visualization modules. We propose a polynomial-time optimal algorithm that uses the dynamic programming method to compute the mapping with a minimum total delay. An OpenGL-based remote visualization system is implemented and deployed at three geographically distributed nodes for preliminary experiments.