Computing infrastructure issues in distributed communications systems : a survey of operating system transport system architectures

The performance of distributed applications (such as file transfer, remote login, tele-conferencing, full-motion video, and scientific visualization) is influenced by several factors that interact in complex ways. In particular, application performance is significantly affected both by communication infrastructure factors and computing infrastructure factors. Several communication infrastructure factors include channel speed, bit-error rate, and congestion at intermediate switching nodes. Computing infrastructure factors include (among other things) both protocol processing activities (such as connection management, flow control, error detection, and retransmission) and general operating system factors (such as memory latency, CPU speed, interrupt and context switching overhead, process architecture, and message buffering). Due to a several orders of magnitude increase in network channel speed and an increase in application diversity, performance bottlenecks are shifting from the network factors to the transport system factors.This paper defines an abstraction called an "Operating System Transport System Architecture" (OSTSA) that is used to classify the major components and services in the computing infrastructure. End-to-end network protocols such as TCP, TP4, VMTP, XTP, and Delta-t typically run on general-purpose computers, where they utilize various operating system resources such as processors, virtual memory, and network controllers. The OSTSA provides services that integrate these resources to support distributed applications running on local and wide area networks.A taxonomy is presented to evaluate OSTSAs in terms of their support for protocol processing activities. We use this taxonomy to compare and contrast five general-purpose commercial and experimental operating systems including System V UNIX, BSD UNIX, the x-kernel, Choices, and Xinu

Self-stabilizing cluster routing in Manet using link-cluster architecture

We design a self-stabilizing cluster routing algorithm based on the link-cluster architecture of wireless ad hoc networks. The network is divided into clusters. Each cluster has a single special node, called a clusterhead that contains the routing information about inter and intra-cluster communication. A cluster is comprised of all nodes that choose the corresponding clusterhead as their leader. The algorithm consists of two main tasks. First, the set of special nodes (clusterheads) is elected such that it models the link-cluster architecture: any node belongs to a single cluster, it is within two hops of the clusterhead, it knows the direct neighbor on the shortest path towards the clusterhead, and there exist no two adjacent clusterheads. Second, the routing tables are maintained by the clusterheads to store information about nodes both within and outside the cluster. There are two advantages of maintaining routing tables only in the clusterheads. First, as no two neighboring nodes are clusterheads (as per the link-cluster architecture), there is no need to check the consistency of the routing tables. Second, since all other nodes have significantly less work (they only forward messages), they use much less power than the clusterheads. Therefore, if a clusterhead runs out of power, a neighboring node (that is not a clusterhead) can accept the role of a clusterhead. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

On Secure Workflow Decentralisation on the Internet

Decentralised workflow management systems are a new research area, where most work to-date has focused on the system's overall architecture. As little attention has been given to the security aspects in such systems, we follow a security driven approach, and consider, from the perspective of available security building blocks, how security can be implemented and what new opportunities are presented when empowering the decentralised environment with modern distributed security protocols. Our research is motivated by a more general question of how to combine the positive enablers that email exchange enjoys, with the general benefits of workflow systems, and more specifically with the benefits that can be introduced in a decentralised environment. This aims to equip email users with a set of tools to manage the semantics of a message exchange, contents, participants and their roles in the exchange in an environment that provides inherent assurances of security and privacy. This work is based on a survey of contemporary distributed security protocols, and considers how these protocols could be used in implementing a distributed workflow management system with decentralised control . We review a set of these protocols, focusing on the required message sequences in reviewing the protocols, and discuss how these security protocols provide the foundations for implementing core control-flow, data, and resource patterns in a distributed workflow environment

Design Aspects of An Energy-Efficient, Lightweight Medium Access Control Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

This document gives an overview of the most relevant design aspects of the lightweight medium access control (LMAC) protocol [16] for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). These aspects include selfconfiguring and localized operation of the protocol, time synchronization in multi-hop networks, network setup and strategies to reduce latency.\ud The main goal in designing a MAC protocol for WSNs is to minimize energy waste - due to collisions of messages and idle listening - , while limiting latency and loss of data throughput. It is shown that the LMAC protocol performs well on energy-efficiency and delivery ratio [19] and can\ud ensure a long-lived, self-configuring network of battery-powered wireless sensors.\ud The protocol is based upon scheduled access, in which each node periodically gets a time slot, during which it is allowed to transmit. The protocol does not depend on central managers to assign time slots to nodes.\ud WSNs are assumed to be multi-hop networks, which allows for spatial reuse of time slots, just like frequency reuse in GSM cells. In this document, we present a distributed algorithm that allows nodes to find unoccupied time slots, which can be used without causing collision or interference to other nodes. Each node takes one time slot in control to\ud carry out its data transmissions. Latency is affected by the actual choice of controlled time slot. We present time slot choosing strategies, which ensure a low latency for the most common data traffic in WSNs: reporting of sensor readings to central sinks