Local computer networks :a study

This thesis examines the principles underlying the design of local computer networks. It then reviews the features of several existing long-haul and local networks. The design and construction of Bassernet - a network using an Ethernet type protocol on a loop topology is described. Measurements of the performance of Bassernet are presented and commented on. Finally, some speculations are made on the future of the Bassernet network

DECENTRALIZED CONTROL OF DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING SYSTEMS

This thesis presents a methodology for implementing decentralized scheduling for distributed systems. The environment in which the controlling entities make decisions is stochastic and can be described as uncertain since each entity may have a different view of the system state. As a consequence, these entities may make inconsistent decisions. The methodology is based on defining the system state as a set of distributions and using a queueing model to predict the future behaviour of the system. The predicted state is used to schedule the individual job tasks based on minimum predicted job response time. A hypothetical real system is simulated. The methodology was tested using different queueing models and under different environments. An evaluation of the proposed technique using the simulation results indicates a consistent performance improvement over the no network case. Suggestions for extending this research are also presented