Technical Report (TR98-03) Cover Page

Title:

Integrating Remote Procedure Calls with Virtual Memory Management
for Cooperative Autonomous Systems

Authors:

Kenji Kono, Kazuhiko Kato, and Takashi Masuda

Key words and phrases:

remote procedure call, distributed shared memory, virtual memory, distributed object, sharing, protection, recovery

Abstract:

Cooperation and autonomy of distributed processes are indispensable features of loosely coupled applications where information is shared beyond administrative boundaries such as laboratories and companies. To facilitate this style of information sharing, this paper proposes a distribution facility, called the VM-integrated RPC, that integrates the remote procedure call (RPC) with virtual memory (VM) management. It combines the advantages of the conventional technologies for distributed programming: RPC and distributed shared memory (DSM). By incorporating data-sharing semantics, the VM-integrated RPC enables effective cooperation of processes like DSM technologies do. By retaining the advantages of RPC, it preserves the autonomy of processes and is also applicable to heterogeneous environments. The VM-integrated RPC shows reasonable performance that is scalable to the access ratio of remote shared data. In addition, it adaptively changes caching strategies and coherency protocols for better performance across a wide range of access patterns.

Report date:

September 14, 1998

Written language:

English

Total number of pages:

29

Number of references:

41

Any other identifying information of this report:

Submitted for publication.

Distribution statement:

Electronic copy only

Supplementary notes: