| | 1 | = AndroidBOINC = |
| | 2 | |
| | 3 | AndroidBOINC is an attempt to port the |
| | 4 | Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing to Android-powered devices. |
| | 5 | |
| | 6 | The Android application consists of the regular BOINC Client |
| | 7 | and an Android-specific BOINC Manager. |
| | 8 | Using AndroidBOINC, BOINC projects can distribute scientific tasks |
| | 9 | to Android-powered devices, |
| | 10 | enabling volunteers to contribute CPU time of modern smartphones and tablet computers. |
| | 11 | |
| | 12 | |
| | 13 | == Architecture == |
| | 14 | |
| | 15 | AndroidBOINC combines the two independent BOINC components of Client and Manager. |
| | 16 | |
| | 17 | The BOINC Client got adapted to accommodate the needs of mobile devices |
| | 18 | and can be cross compiled to run on ARM-Android-based devices. |
| | 19 | To allow volunteers to control the Client, |
| | 20 | AndroidBOINC's second component is a BOINC Manager, |
| | 21 | developed for Android using the common design patterns. |
| | 22 | AndroidBOINC bundles those two components together, to be distributed in a single APK. |
| | 23 | |
| | 24 | Client and Manager communicate via RPCs, similar to versions on Windows or Linux. |
| | 25 | |
| | 26 | On startup the Android application executes the BOINC Client, |
| | 27 | which does not have Android-specific methods implemented and consists |
| | 28 | solely out of native source code. |
| | 29 | The Client and Manager run as two separate processes. |
| | 30 | |
| | 31 | |
| | 32 | === Aspects of Android platform === |
| | 33 | |
| | 34 | * Storage: |
| | 35 | Applications are only allowed to write into two areas of a device's storage space. |
| | 36 | One is the app's directory, located at /data/data/*package.name*/, |
| | 37 | files in this directory can be set executable and run using the Java's |
| | 38 | Runtime.exec command. |
| | 39 | This space is "private", so only accessible by the application it belongs to. |
| | 40 | The second storage location is the device SD card (if present), |
| | 41 | this is generally accessible by all applications, but mounted non-executable. |
| | 42 | |
| | 43 | * Permissions: |
| | 44 | Android restricts access to certain features with its permission system. |
| | 45 | Required permissions have to be declared in the AndroidManifest.xml file by the developer, |
| | 46 | the user then gets prompted to grant access upon installation. |
| | 47 | AndroidBOINC requires the "Network" permission, |
| | 48 | for transmitting workunits and also for the RPC communication in-between Manager and Client. |
| | 49 | This permission is granted to the App-specific Linux User ID, |
| | 50 | and therefore also applies to its child-processes. |
| | 51 | |
| | 52 | * Lifecycle: |
| | 53 | Applications which are not visible at the moment can get killed by the system. |
| | 54 | If the user navigates back to a destroyed application, it gets reactivated. |
| | 55 | In most cases according lifecycle-methods are called, however those are not reliable. |
| | 56 | This behavior only applies to applications which are executed in Android's |
| | 57 | Dalvik virtual machine and not to native child-processes like the BOINC Client. |
| | 58 | As a consequence, the Manager tries to connect to a possibly existing BOINC Client. |
| | 59 | Only if this attempt fails, a new instance of the BOINC client is executed. |
| | 60 | |
| | 61 | * Distribution: |
| | 62 | Like every other application, AndroidBOINC comes in an APK package. |
| | 63 | The BOINC Client gets distributed as part of the Android app and resides |
| | 64 | in its "assets" directory. |
| | 65 | When executed, the Client gets copied to the local storage space and executed from there. |
| | 66 | |
| | 67 | |
| | 68 | === Considerations for mobile devices === |
| | 69 | |
| | 70 | In order to accommodate the limitations of mobile devices, |
| | 71 | two features got introduced to the BOINC Client: |
| | 72 | |
| | 73 | * Wifi detection: AndroidBOINC, by default, does communication with its project scheduler |
| | 74 | only when logged into a Wifi. |
| | 75 | This helps volunteers keeping control of limitations on a data plan. |
| | 76 | |
| | 77 | * Charging only: AndroidBOINC, by default, computes tasks |
| | 78 | only when the device is being connected to a power source, preventing battery drowns. |
| | 79 | |
| | 80 | |
| | 81 | == Acknowledgements == |
| | 82 | |
| | 83 | * Pavol Michalec for his work on AndroBOINC (BOINC Manager for Android) |
| | 84 | |
| | 85 | * Mats for his work on NativeBOINC |
| | 86 | |
| | 87 | |
| | 88 | == Getting Started == |
| | 89 | |
| | 90 | To get your project running on Android, please note: |
| | 91 | |
| | 92 | * [AndroidBoincClient Build AndroidBOINC] |
| | 93 | |
| | 94 | * [AndroidBoincApps Build apps for AndroidBOINC] |
| | 95 | |
