USING MULTICAST COMMUNICATIONS TO DISTRIBUTE CODE AND DATA IN WIDE AREA NETWORKS

This paper describes the implementation and use of a prototype multica st late-binding RPC (LbRPC) system. The system provides a mechanism fo r exporting arbitrary code and data across a wide area internetwork to multiple hosts for evaluation. This mechanism provides a means to ens ure that the total execution time for the application is as small as p ossible without requiring continual monitoring and estimation of the s tate of the hosts and the intervening network. The impact of sending t he same code and data to a group of remote hosts is minimized by using multicast Internet protocol (IP) communications for the outward leg o f the transaction. This prototype implementation demonstrates the feas ibility of using multicasting for process placement and some performan ce measurements are included to show how it stands up to usage on the Internet. The paper concludes with a discussion of outstanding issues raised by this research.