Design and implementation of interprocess communication facility in distributed computer system

Abstract

This thesis describes a design and implementation of interprocess communication (IPC) facility in distributed operating system to support distributed computer system (DCS). This facility is intended to provide flexible services for distributed processes. End-to-end protocol in the IPC model is designed to be more efficient in the DCS connected by local area network (LAN). Because a LAN has a very low error rate and a high speed, the LAN-oriented, specialized protocol is designed. The process naming and addressing scheme is determined to provide a network transparency in DCS. Generally, LAN supports broadcasting intermachine communication. Therefore, this thesis also describes an extension of the previous IPC model to support multicasting IPC. The concept of process group is introduced and the integration of unicasting IPC service into multicasting IPC with little variation is considered. The designed IPC model is implemented on the data link layer of the LAN emulated by using a leased serial line and a device driver routine. Finally, evaluation for the IPC facility implemented on LAN emulator is shown and analyzed.