Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) is a

proprietary protocol In telecommunications, a proprietary protocol is a communications protocol owned by a single organization or individual. Intellectual property rights and enforcement Ownership by a single organization gives the owner the ability to place restricti ...

for an

application server An application server is a server that hosts applications or software that delivers a business application through a communication protocol. For a typical web application, the application server sits behind the web servers. An application ser ...

system, designed by

Citrix Systems Citrix Systems, Inc. is an American multinational cloud computing and virtualization technology company that provides server, application and desktop virtualization, networking, software as a service (SaaS), and cloud computing technologies. ...

. The protocol lays down a specification for passing data between servers and clients, but is not bound to any one platform. Citrix's ICA is an alternative to Microsoft's

Remote Desktop Protocol Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft Corporation which provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection. The user employs RDP client software for this pu ...

(RDP). Practical products conforming to ICA are Citrix's

WinFrame Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly WinFrame, MetaFrame, Presentation Server and XenApp) is an application virtualization software produced by Citrix Systems that allows Windows applications to be accessed via individual devices from a shared serve ...

Citrix XenApp Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly WinFrame, MetaFrame, Presentation Server and XenApp) is an application virtualization software produced by Citrix Systems that allows Windows applications to be accessed via individual devices from a shared server o ...

(formerly called MetaFrame/Presentation Server), and

Citrix XenDesktop Citrix Virtual Desktops (formerly XenDesktop) is a desktop virtualization product. History The virtualization technology that led to XenDesktop was first developed in 2000 through an open-source hypervisor research project led by Ian Pratt at the ...

products. These permit ordinary

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

applications to be run on a suitable Windows server and for any supported client to gain access to those applications. Besides Windows, ICA is also supported on a number of

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

server platforms and can be used to deliver access to applications running on these platforms. The client platforms do not have to run Windows; for instance, there are clients available for

Mac Mac or MAC may refer to: Common meanings * Mac (computer), a line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * Mac, a prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages * McIntosh (apple), a Canadi ...

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

, and various smartphones. ICA client software is also built into various

thin client In computer networking, a thin client, sometimes called slim client or lean client, is a simple (low-Computer performance, performance) computer that has been Program optimization, optimized for Remote desktop, establishing a remote connectio ...

platforms. ICA is broadly similar in purpose to window servers such as the

X Window System The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The X protocol has been at ...

. It also provides for the feedback of user input from the client to the server, and a variety of means for the server to send graphical output, as well as other media such as audio, from the running application to the client. The key challenges in an architecture are

network latency Network delay is a design and performance characteristic of a telecommunications network. It specifies the latency for a bit of data to travel across the network from one communication endpoint to another. It is typically measured in multiples ...

and performance—a graphically intensive application (as most are when presented using a

GUI Gui or GUI may refer to: People Surname * Gui (surname), an ancient Chinese surname, ''xing'' * Bernard Gui (1261 or 1262–1331), inquisitor of the Dominican Order * Luigi Gui (1914–2010), Italian politician * Gui Minhai (born 1964), Ch ...

) being served over a slow or bandwidth-restricted network connection requires considerable compression and optimization to render the application usable by the client. The client machine may be on a different platform and may not have the same GUI routines available locally; in this case, the server may need to send the actual bitmap data over the connection. Depending on the client's capabilities, servers may also off-load part of the graphical processing to the client, e.g. to render multimedia content. ICA runs natively over TCP port 1494 or may be encapsulated i
Common Gateway Protocol
(CGP) on TCP 2598. ICA supports the concept of channels at a

session layer In the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking, the session layer is layer 5. The session layer provides the mechanism for opening, closing and managing a session between end-user application processes, i.e., a semi-permanent dialogue. ...

to encapsulate

rich media Interactive media refers to digital experiences that dynamically respond to user input, delivering content such as text, images, animations, video, audio, and even AI-driven interactions. Over the years, interactive media has expanded across ...

redirection or USB extension within ICA.

Client software

* Citrix ICA Client (DOS, OS/2) * Citrix Presentation Server Client (Mac, Java) * Citrix Receiver (Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Chrome) * Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop Plugin (Windows) *

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a s ...

References

External links

A Slashdot discussion giving insights on how ICA works

Citrix Systems Remote desktop Remote desktop protocols {{software-eng-stub

Client software

See also

References

External links