Collective Value QoS: A Performance Measure Framework for Distributed Heterogeneous Networks

When users' tasks in a distributed heterogeneous computing environment are allocated resources, and the total demand placed on system resources by the tasks, for a given interval of time, exceeds the resources available, some tasks will receive degraded service, receive no service at all, or may be dropped from the system. One part of a measure to quantify the success of a resource management system (RMS) in such an environment is the collective value of the tasks completed during an interval of time, as perceived by the user, the application, or the policy maker. For the case where a task may be a data communication request, the collective value of data communication requests that are satisfied during an interval of time is measured. The Flexible Integrated System Capability (FISC) measure defined here is one way of obtaining a multi-dimensional measure for quantifying this collective value. While the FISC measure itself is not sufficient for scheduling purposes, it can be a critical part of a scheduler or a scheduling heuristic. The primary contribution of this work is providing a way to measure the collective value accrued by an RMS using a broad range of attributes and to construct a flexible framework that can be extended for particular problem domains.DARPA/ITO Quorum ProgramDARPA/ISO BADD ProgramOffice of Naval Research under ONR grant number N00014-97-1-0804DARPA/ITO AICE program under contract numbers DABT63-99-C-0010 and DABT63-99-C-0012DARPA/ITO Quorum ProgramDARPA/ISO BADD ProgramOffice of Naval Research under ONR grant number N00014-97-1-0804DARPA/ITO AICE program under contract numbers DABT63-99-C-0010 and DABT63-99-C-0012Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Resume of Debra Hensgen, 1997

Naval Postgraduate School Faculty Resum

SAAM: An Integrated Network Architecture for Integrated Services

The current network architecture is based predominantly on stand-alone routers. It is becoming overtaxed with the introduction of integrated services. In this paper, we propose a Server and Agent based Active network Management (SAAM) architecture that scales well with integrated services. SAAM relieves individual routers from most routing and network management tasks. Instead, it employs a small number of dedicated servers to perform these tasks on behalf of the routers. In particular, these servers maintain a path information base (PIB), with which network functions, such as QoS routing and re-routing of real-time flows, can be efficiently implemented. We describe a scaleable architecture for organizing the servers as well as a concrete design of the PIB. SAAM has the potential of offering a common platform where multiple network functions --- such as routing, resource reservation, network management, accounting and security --- can be integrated

Determining the Accuracy Required in Resource Load Prediction to Successfully Support Application Agility

Largely due to the proliferation of the World Wide Web, and interfaces such as Netscape, users expect to have many different types of information immediately available. When they encounter a lengthy delay caused byheavy loads on shared resources, such as networks or servers, users often (manually) adapt by requesting different forms of the same information. As both mobile and agent computing becomes more popular, users will expect their applications to automatically adapt to heavy resource loads by fetching the information in a different form, e.g., text instead of graphics. This paper studies the accuracy with which resource loading information, particularly network loading information, must be known in order for applications to successfully, and with agility, adapt. We determine that under many normal conditions, fairly inaccurate estimates of currently available bandwidth suffice. However, when the system is heavily loaded, some strategies can perform much better with very accurate load estimates. That is, assuming that the adaptive applications have hard deadlines for obtaining the data they request, up to more of them will receive some form of that data on time, if the adaptation strategy has a good estimate of avail able bandwidth . Additionally, in these situations, ap plications that have a better estimate of bandwidth can deliver, on average, larger sized messages corres ponding to, in many cases, higher quality data. Fi nally, the accuracy with which the bandwidth must be known varies not only with inter arrival rate, but also with the adaptation strategy used and the percentage of adaptive applications in the system

Experiences Using Semi-Formal Methods During Development of Distributed, Research-Oriented, System-Level Software

(Maximum 200 words.) The Management System for Heterogeneous Networks (MSHN) is a large, distributed research software system project that began over 18 months ago. The primary goal of MSHN is to develop a framework within which next-generation resource management system (RMS) issues can be investigated. The initial MSHN design was developed using basic object-oriented design principles and the initial prototype was built with object-oriented technology. After building an initial proof-of-concept prototype, we looked to the standardized terms, symbols and diagrams of the Unified Modeling Language to explain the functionality of MSHN to new students and staff members of the development group, as well as interested colleagues outside of the group. As we learned more about the UML and applied it to MSHN in further detail, we found that this semi-formal method not only (I) helped us to communicate MSHN's functionality to others, but also (ii) improved our design, helping us identify bloat..

Management System for Heterogeneous Networks Final Report Volume I: Project Summary and Papers

The Management System for Heterogeneous Networks (MSHN) project is part of the DARPA/ITO Quorum program. Quorum’s goal is to develop technologies to allow mission-critical defense applications to achieve survivable, predictable, and controllable quality of service on a globally managed pool of dis- tributed resources. The goal of the MSHN Project is to explore the application of adaptive and heuristic matching and scheduling techniques, and modern distributed security methods, to a distributed heterogeneous resource management system (RMS) which allows system resources to be accessed by both MSHN-controlled and external applications. To validate our research and engineering assumptions, a prototype version of MSHN has been developed and demonstrated

The relative performance of various mapping algorithms is independent of sizable variances in run-time predictions

In this paper we study the performance of four mapping algorithms. The four algorithms include two naiv

Are CORBA Services Ready to Support Resource Management Middleware for Heterogeneous Computing?

The goal of this paper is to report our findings as to which CORBA services are ready to support dis tributed system software in a heterogeneous environment. In particular, we implemented intercommunication between components in our Management System for Heterogeneous Networks (MSHN) using four dif ferent CORBA mechanisms: the Static Invocation In terface (SII), the Dynamic Invocation Interface ( DII), Untyped Event Services, and Typed Event Services. MSHN 's goals are to manage dynamically changing sets of heterogeneous adaptive applications in a het erogeneous environment We found these mechanisms at various stages of maturity , resulting in some being less useful than others . In addition we found that the overhead added by CORBA varied from a low of 10.6 milliseconds per service request to a high of 279.1 mil liseconds per service request on workstations connec ted via Mbits/ sec Ethernet. We therefore conclude that using CORBA not only substantially decreases the amount of time required to implement distributed system software but it need not degrade performance

Passive, Domain-Independent, End-to-End Message Passing Performance Monitoring to Support Adaptive Applications in MSHN

This paper focuses on the problem of monitoring the end-to-end performance of message passing to support adaptive applications to be executed using the MSHN system (Management System for Heterogeneous Networks). Eight commercial and research tools and application components that attempt to measure perceived end-to-end message passing performance were identified. Two were dismissed; one because of recently published findings and the other because it is typically used in too many inconsistent configurations. The remaining six are carefully described in the paper. We were able to characterize each as either passive or active, determine whether they require domain-specific knowledge of an application, identify sources of inaccuracies, and enumerate their limitations. Based upon this survey, and previous analytical experiments, we conclude that the optimal monitoring mechanism: (1) should be passive; (2) should not require domain-specific knowledge of an application; (3) should minimize sources of error; and (4) should have few limitations. No single tool or application component surveyed has all of these characteristics. Based upon the surveyed work and other recent research in distributed systems, we have synthesized a new tool whose mechanisms have all of the desired characteristics. This paper describes our mechanism, and how we implemented it, in detail

Management System for Heterogeneous Networks Final Report, Volume I: Project Summary and Papers

The goal of the MSHN Project was to explore the application of adaptive and heuristic matching and scheduling techniques, and modem distributed security methods, to a distributed heterogeneous resource management system (RMS) which allows system resources to be accessed by both MSHN-controlled and external applications. This document provides both a high-level overview of the MSHN technical program and a reference guide to the MSHN research papers constituting Appendix A.DARPA/ITOMIPR No. 0O-E583Approved for public release; distribution is unlimite