Intel® vPro™ Technology

  Section 3 of 13  

Mobile Manageability in Low-Power and Operating-System-Absent States

Introduction

The concept of remote manageability has been around for many years now.

Historically, it was only possible to manage computers when they were on, that is, in the state that the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) denotes as the S0 state.

With the advent of Wake On LAN, however, computers in low-power states could be woken up and managed remotely. (Low-power states comprise ACPI S3, S4, and S5, referred to collectively as Sx states).

The next innovation in manageability was Alert Standard Format (ASF). This manageability standard allowed for the management of computers in Sx states. ASF, however, is limited in that it was developed for stationary computers: it does not provide a complete solution for managing mobile computers.

A mobile computer differs from a stationary desktop computer in a few respects. First, a mobile platform cannot have a static IP address in most cases; instead it must rely on a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), so it needs to actively obtain a DHCP lease. Second, mobile computers rely heavily on Wireless LAN (WLAN/802.11), which means that for the WLAN link to be active, the mobile platform may have to re-associate with the WLAN Access Point (AP) after link loss. Third, WLAN link security (and some LAN link security) relies on 802.1x, which means that the platform must re-establish its authenticity at certain times in order to avoid being shut out of the network. Fourth, even if a mobile computer belongs to a corporate enterprise, in many cases it is taken home by the end user, and the home environment is often situated behind a Network Address Translation (NAT) mechanism. This means that managing that computer requires that the platform initiate the connection. Last but not least, a mobile computer is very likely to be connected at certain times to limited battery (DC) power instead of to a virtually unlimited AC power source: in this case, managing that computer remotely will take its toll on battery power.

In this article, we demonstrate how Intel® vPro™ technology overcomes the shortcomings of ASF in dealing with these challenges of managing laptop computers both in Sx states and in the absence of an operating system (OS) in the S0 state.

We first present an overview of the benefits of being able to efficiently manage computer assets remotely; that is, we present a value proposition for remote management. We then look at specific manageability solutions prior to the deployment of Intel vPro technology. We follow that with a discussion of the differences between desktop and laptop computers, and the shortcomings of management solutions for handling the mobile computing world prior to the advent of Intel vPro technology. Finally, we end with a discussion of the actual solutions employed by Intel vPro technology to handle the world of mobile computing. Readers who are less interested in the historical perspective and problem statement may want to skip to the final section of this article, though an understanding of the historical perspective helps in the overall understanding of Intel vPro technology's solution to manage IT assets remotely in the world of mobile computing.

  Section 3 of 13  

Back to Top