Android RMI: a user-level remote method invocation mechanism between Android devices

This paper presents the design and implementation of a user-level remote method invocation (RMI) mechanism between Android devices called Android RMI, which extends the original Binder mechanism. Android RMI is developed as a user-level program so that it can easily be ported into other devices running Android. Since Android RMI provides similar programming abstractions to those used to invoke local services, existing applications need little modifications when they run over multiple devices. Furthermore, unlike previous approaches where only application services can be invoked, Android RMI allows users to invoke system services as well as application services between devices using remote parcel format. By reducing the number of marshalling and unmarshalling steps, the time taken for remote method invocation is shortened by 148 % in 4 KBytes and by up to 432 % in 100 KBytes compared to distributed intent where additional marshalling and unmarshalling steps are needed.