Transient customization of mobile computing infrastructure

Kimberley is a system that simplifies transient use of fixed hardware infrastructure by a mobile device. It uses virtual machine (VM) technology to resolve the tension between standardizing infrastructure for ease of deployment and maintenance, and customizing that infrastructure to meet the specific needs of a user. Kimberley decomposes the state of a customized VM into a widely-available base VM and a much smaller private VM overlay. The base is downloaded by the infrastructure in advance. Only the small overlay needs to be delivered from the mobile device, or under its control from a public web site. This strategy keeps startup delay low. It may also conserve energy on the mobile device by reducing the volume of wireless transmission. We have built a prototype of Kimberley, and our experiments confirm the feasibility of this approach.