Multicast communications in distributed systems

PhD ThesisOne of the numerous results of recent developments in communication networks and distributed systems has been an increased interest in the study of applications and protocolsfor communications between multiple, as opposed to single, entities such as processes and computers. For example, in replicated file storage, a process attempts to store a file on several file servers, rather than one. MUltiple entity communications, which allow one-to-many and many-to-one communications, are known as multicast communications. This thesis examines some of the ways in which the architectures of computer networks and distributed systems can affect the design and development of multicast communication applications and protocols.To assist in this examination, the thesis presents three contributions. First, a set of classification schemes are developed for use in the description and analysis of various multicast communication strategies. Second, a general set of multicast communication primitives are presented, unrelated to any specific network or distributed system, yet efficiently implementable on a variety of networks. Third, the primitives are used to obtain experimental results for a study ofintranetwork and internetwork multicast communications.Postgraduate Scholarship, The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada: Overseas Research Student Award: the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the Uni ted Kingdom

“INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATURES”: CONSENSUS STANDARDIZATION IN THE SECOND AND THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS

Consensus standardization is a social process in which technical experts from public, private, and non-profit sectors negotiate the direction and shape of technological change. Scholars in a variety of disciplines have recognized the importance of consensus standards as alternatives to standards that arise through market mechanisms or standards mandated by regulators. Rather than treating the consensus method as some sort of timeless organizational form or ever-present alternative to markets or laws, I argue that consensus standardization is itself a product of history. In the first two chapters, I explain the origins and growth of consensus standards bodies between 1880 and 1930 as a reaction to and critique of the existing political economy of engineering. By considering the standardization process—instead of the internal dynamics of a particular firm or technology—as the primary category of analysis, I am able to emphasize the cooperative relations that sustained the American style of competitive managerial capitalism during the Second Industrial Revolution. In the remaining four chapters, I examine the processes of network architecture and standardization in the creation of four communications networks during the twentieth century: AT&T’s monopoly telephone network, the Internet, digital cellular telephone networks, and the World Wide Web. Each of these four networks embodied critiques—always implicit and frequently explicit—of preceding and competing networks. These critiques, visible both in the technological design of networks as well as in the institutional design of standard-setting bodies, reflected the political convictions of successive generations of engineers and network architects. The networks described in this dissertation were thus turning points in the century-long development of an organizational form. Seen as part of a common history, they tell the story of how consensus-based institutions became the dominant mode for setting standards in the Third Industrial Revolution, and created the foundational standards of the information infrastructures upon which a newly globalized economy and society—the Network Society—could grow

Processus de formation d'ICANN et normativités : une revue critique de l'histoire et de la littérature sur l'institutionnalisation d'Internet

Ce mémoire est une revue historique critique de la formation d'ICANN, dont l'aspect critique a trait à l'identification des normativités agissantes dans les processus\ud d'institutionnalisation. En refusant de considérer la gouvernance d'Internet comme un mode de coordination spécifique -base sur la continuité du dialogue entre agents indépendants, l'allocation des ressources pour le développement de projets mutuels bénéfiques, et la gestion des conflits qui y sont inévitables -l'on découvre dans la\ud sphère politique conflictuelle autour de la formation de ICANN que les systèmes de justification liés aux institutions possibles sont les protagonistes véritables de l'histoire. Bien que les sciences sociales ne disposent d'aucune théorie politique générale des normativités qui expliquerait quelques-unes des continuités et transformations de la société politique en représentant la manière dont les principes normatifs influent sur (ou sont instrumentalisés par) les agents, la revue historique découvre à travers la littérature que des visions normatives, concurrentes sur plusieurs dimensions, informent les conflits et tensions de la négociation globale (permanente) pour l'établissement d'un arrangement institutionnel pour Internet. Puisant support dans les positions ontologiques des institutionnalismes dits \ud « hybride » (rationaliste/cognitiviste), cette revue historique concentre son attention sur les éléments constitutifs des visions normatives concurrentes. C'est-à-dire que les principes normatifs promus et contestés par les agents de même que par la technologie informent la recherche et la narration historique. Le parcours est thématique ce qui permet de rendre compte de la globalité de l'espace social et politique Internet. Internet comme objet technologique, objet d'économie politique et objet légal suscite diverses dimensions normatives conflictuelles qui témoignent de l'élargissement des parties prenantes impliquées et informent les luttes qui s'y déploient en tant qu'objet politique. Bien que la narration ne soit pas analytique, elle éclaire la période conflictuelle de formation de ICANN sous un angle novateur, tout en contribuant à la mise sur pied de données normatives desquelles pourront se développer des avenues d'agrégation au sein d'une théorie générale. Elle ouvre notamment la possibilité de lier analytiquement les principes normatifs aux processus dynamiques et stratégiques de formation de coalitions dans un modèle spatial multidimensionnel caractérisé par l'incertitude cognitive. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Visions normatives de gouvernance, Institutionnalisation, Principes normatifs, Gouvernance d'Internet, Politique globale, ICANN, DNS