| Communication between processors has long been the bottleneck of distributed network computing. However, the recent advent of high-speed networks may change this situation. Currently, there are three well-publicized and emerging high-speed networks which can potentially satisfy the communication needs of distributed network computing. They are: (1) the High Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI) standard, (2) the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) standard, and (3) the Fiber Channel (FC) standard. Those three high-speed networks provide several hundred megabits per second to several gigabits per second of raw communication bandwidth. Because of the flexibility in system configuration and high communication speed of the three high-speed networks, considering how to fully utilize the communication bandwidth introduces a host of new research problems into the systems and communications arena. This thesis investigates some of the important system design issues and the expected performance of those networks.; First, to reduce the amount of time required for a processor to set up a connection during the execution of an application, we propose a new communication protocol called the Virtual Permanent Connection (VPC). For a given application topology, a set of connections are set up and permanently maintained during the execution of the application. Communication between processors are via this group of connections. Second, we investigate the feasibility of distributed network computing over local ATM networks. We first study the communication performance of four different Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Each API represents distributed programming at a different communication protocol layer. We then evaluate two popular distributed applications over the local ATM network. Third, to fully utilize the network bandwidth and to improve performance at the application level, we study the I/O subsystem of a Fibre Channel network.; Our studies show that distributed network computing is very promising over three high-speed networks, provided that the higher level protocols, device drivers, and network interfaces are improved. |
