Real-Time Dependable Channels: Customizing QoS Attributes for Distributed Systems

Communication services that provide enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees related to dependability and real time are important for many applications in distributed systems. This paper presents real-time dependable (RTD) channels, a communication-oriented abstraction that can be configured to meet the QoS requirements of a variety of distributed applications. This customization ability is based on using CactusRT, a system that supports the construction of middleware services out of software modules called micro-protocols. Each micro-protocol implements a different semantic property or property variant and interacts with other micro-protocols using an event-driven model supported by the CactusRT runtime system. In addition to RTD channels CactusRT and its implementation are described. This prototype executes on a cluster of Pentium PCs running the OpenGroup/RI MK 7.3 Mach real-time operating system and CORDS, a system for building network protocols based on the x-kernel.

[1]  Hideyuki Tokuda,et al.  A Time-Driven Scheduling Model for Real-Time Operating Systems , 1985, RTSS.

[2]  Flaviu Cristian,et al.  Atomic Broadcast: From Simple Message Diffusion to Byzantine Agreement , 1995, Inf. Comput..

[3]  Robbert van Renesse,et al.  Horus: a flexible group communication system , 1996, CACM.

[4]  Aniruddha S. Gokhale,et al.  Alleviating priority inversion and non-determinism in real-time CORBA ORB core architectures , 1998, Proceedings. Fourth IEEE Real-Time Technology and Applications Symposium (Cat. No.98TB100245).

[5]  André Schiper,et al.  Lightweight causal and atomic group multicast , 1991, TOCS.

[6]  Larry L. Peterson,et al.  The x-Kernel: An Architecture for Implementing Network Protocols , 1991, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[7]  Jeffrey C. Mogul,et al.  Measured capacity of an Ethernet: myths and reality , 1988, CCRV.

[8]  Matti A. Hiltunen,et al.  Coyote: a system for constructing fine-grain configurable communication services , 1998, TOCS.

[9]  Hermann Kopetz,et al.  Tolerating transient faults in MARS , 1990, [1990] Digest of Papers. Fault-Tolerant Computing: 20th International Symposium.

[10]  Richard D. Schlichting,et al.  Preserving and using context information in interprocess communication , 1989, TOCS.

[11]  Franco Travostino,et al.  Paths: programming with system resources in support of real-time distributed applications , 1996, Proceedings of WORDS'96. The Second Workshop on Object-Oriented Real-Time Dependable Systems.

[12]  Hermann Kopetz,et al.  Distributed fault-tolerant real-time systems: the Mars approach , 1989, IEEE Micro.

[13]  Matti A. Hiltunen,et al.  Supporting customized failure models for distributed software , 1999, Distributed Syst. Eng..

[14]  David Hutchison,et al.  Multimedia group communications: towards new services , 1996, Distributed Syst. Eng..

[15]  Louise E. Moser,et al.  Totem: a fault-tolerant multicast group communication system , 1996, CACM.

[16]  Vijay K. Garg,et al.  An algorithm for guaranteeing synchronous ordering of messages , 1995, Proceedings ISADS 95. Second International Symposium on Autonomous Decentralized Systems.

[17]  Matti A. Hiltunen,et al.  A Configurable Membership Service , 1998, IEEE Trans. Computers.

[18]  Matti A. Hiltunen,et al.  A customized communication subsystem for ft-linda , 1995 .

[19]  Matti A. Hiltunen.  Configuration management for highly-customizable services , 1998, Proceedings. Fourth International Conference on Configurable Distributed Systems (Cat. No.98EX159).

[20]  Douglas C. Schmidt,et al.  Architectures and patterns for developing high performance real-time ORB endsystems , 1999, Adv. Comput..

[21]  E. Horowitz.  SAC-1 , 1972, SIGS.

[22]  Kang G. Shin,et al.  Real-time communication in multi-hop networks , 1991, [1991] Proceedings. 11th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems.

[23]  Domenico Ferrari,et al.  Exact admission control for networks with a bounded delay service , 1996, TNET.

[24]  Charles U. Martel,et al.  Dynamic Prioritized Conflict Resolution on Multiple Access Broadcast Networks , 1996, IEEE Trans. Computers.

[25]  Rene L. Cruz,et al.  A calculus for network delay, Part I: Network elements in isolation , 1991, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory.

[26]  Anindo Banerjea,et al.  The Tenet real-time protocol suite: design, implementation, and experiences , 1996, TNET.

[27]  Mukesh Singhal,et al.  Real‐time causal message ordering in multimedia systems , 1997, Telecommun. Syst..

[28]  Hideyuki Tokuda,et al.  Real-Time Mach: Towards a Predictable Real-Time System , 1990, USENIX MACH Symposium.

[29]  Warren A. Montgomery,et al.  Techniques for Packet Voice Synchronization , 1983, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[30]  Günter Grünsteidl,et al.  TTP - A Protocol for Fault-Tolerant Real-Time Systems , 1994, Computer.

[31]  Edward W. Knightly,et al.  Deterministic delay bounds for VBR video in packet-switching networks: fundamental limits and practical trade-offs , 1996, TNET.

[32]  Shivakant Mishra,et al.  Implementing fault-tolerant replicated objects using Psync , 1989, Proceedings of the Eighth Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems.

[33]  Kang G. Shin,et al.  Design of a Communication Subsystem for HARTS , 1991 .

[34]  Chia Shen,et al.  Implementation and Performance of MidART , 1997 .

[35]  Anees Shaikh,et al.  RTCAST: lightweight multicast for real-time process groups , 1996, Proceedings Real-Time Technology and Applications.

[36]  A. Herbert.  An ANSA overview , 1994, IEEE Network.

[37]  Douglas C. Schmidt,et al.  ADAPTIVE: A dynamically assembled protocol transformation, integration and evaluation environment , 1993, Concurr. Pract. Exp..

[38]  Matti A. Hiltunen.  Configuration management for highly-customisable software , 1998, IEE Proc. Softw..

[39]  I. Bey,et al.  Delta-4: A Generic Architecture for Dependable Distributed Computing , 1991, Research Reports ESPRIT.

[40]  Matti A. Hiltunen,et al.  Constructing a configurable group RPC service , 1995, Proceedings of 15th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems.

[41]  Lui Sha,et al.  Priority Inheritance Protocols: An Approach to Real-Time Synchronization , 1990, IEEE Trans. Computers.

[42]  Kang G. Shin,et al.  Real-Time Communication in Multihop Networks , 1994, IEEE Trans. Parallel Distributed Syst..

[43]  Pradeep K. Khosla,et al.  Design of Dynamically Reconfigurable Real-Time Software Using Port-Based Objects , 1997, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[44]  Edward W. Knightly,et al.  H-BIND: a new approach to providing statistical performance guarantees to VBR traffic , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE INFOCOM '96. Conference on Computer Communications.