The LBX Mini-HOWTO: How Does LBX Work?

Next Previous Contents

## 5. How Does LBX Work?

LBX works by introducing a proxy server at the client side, which performs caching and compression. The X server knows that the client is using a proxy server, and decompresses accordingly.

Here's a normal setup for remote X clients. In our discussion, LOCAL is always the workstation sitting in front of you, whose monitor you're looking at, and REMOTE is the remote workstation, where the actual application is running.

> `

>          REMOTE                               LOCAL
>      +-----+                                             +-----+
>      | APP |-\          Network            +----------+  |     |\
>      +-----+  \--------------------------->| X SERVER |=>|     ||
>      +-----+  /       (X Protocol)         +----------+  +-----+\
>      | APP |-/                                          /_____//
>      +-----+

> `

When using LBX, a proxy server (`lbxproxy`) is introduced on the remote side, and the applications talk to that process instead of directly to the LOCAL server. That process then performs the caching and compression of X requests and forwards them. It looks like this:

> `

>          REMOTE                                         LOCAL
>                                                                    +-----+
>      +-----+  +-------+           Network            +----------+  |     |\
>      | APP |->| PROXY |----------------------------->| X SERVER |=>|     ||
>      +-----+  +-------+       (LBX/X Protocol)       +----------+  +-----+\
>      +-----+   /                                                  /_____//
>      | APP |--/
>      +-----+

> `

Details on exactly what caching and compression LBX does is beyond the scope of this document.

Next Previous Contents