A peer-to-peer message passing system for parallel computing : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis presents an implementation of a computational grid system that utilises network-enabled computers to execute parallel applications. The system is fully decentralised and self-configuring and handles the joining and departure of nodes transparently to the user. The system allows users to specify the resources such as operating system, network connection speed and system memory their applications require. It then searches for these resources and executes the applications on appropriate peers. It uses checkpointing of application processes to allow a running process to vacate a host and migrate to another peer when the host leaves the network. Process migration is transparent to the user and the processes automatically find the new address of the migrated process when migration is completed.