Difference’s between ICA (HDX new name for ICA) and RDP (RDS)

ICA stands for Independent Computing Architecture. It is a proprietary protocol for an application server system, designed by Citrix Systems. ICA/HDX is a protocol that the Citrix platform uses for transmitting keystrokes, mouse movements, and screen updates between clients and the Citrix Presentation Server.

ICA/HDX can run on top of many operating systems including Windows, Linux, iOS. ICA/HDX is designed to run over industry-standard network protocols, such as TCP/IP, NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, and PPP and industry-standard transport protocols, such as async, ISDN, Frame Relay and ATM.

Within the ICA protocol, virtual channels are used to designate the various functionalities, such as client drive mappings, video, keyboard strokes, etc. Layer 3 (IP) and Layer 4 (TCP). You can have up to 32 virtual channels.

Citrix Xenapp ICA/HDX and Microsoft’s RDP are very similar, but there are definitely differences, especially when it comes to latency and unstable connections, which ICA is able to handle better, as well as many options on how to handle those types of connections. Based on the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Terminal Services was first introduced in Windows NT 4.0 (Terminal Server Edition).

Main difference’s between ICA and RDP –

ICA/HDX – Independent Computing Architecture:

-        Application publishing is supported by ICA.

-        Low bandwidth is sufficient for ICA.

-        Encryption is possible in ICA.

-        Keyboard and Mouse inputs are present in ICA.

-        ICA ensures session reliability.

RDP – Remote Desktop Protocol:

-        RDP works only under TCP/IP.

-        RDP does not support applications to run in a browser.

-        Only 128-bit encryption, using the RC4 encryption algorithm, as of Version 6.

-        Session reliability is not ensured by RDP.

Performance Differences between RDP and ICA test result –

Like Oscar Pistorius, Microsoft might not always finish first – but you can bet on them to be a gold medalist and the inspiration for a lot of the competition.