Process Mobility in Distributed-Memory Simulation Systems

Abstract

Our focus is on the novel use of a process-oriented methodology in distributed-memory simulation systems. To the best of our knowledge, the few existing systems which adopt a process-view strictly use message-passing to effect process-interaction in distributed-memory settings. As a result, these systems avoid scenarios in which processes access passive but shared components. This can restrict the manner in which a system is modelled and hinder the phase of distributed model construction. In this paper, we propose an approach which utilizes mobile processes in distributed-memory simulation systems. Mobile processes can move around the system at will, with easy access to remote system components. The approach basically entails the migration of a requesting process with its timestamp to the remote site hosting the requested passive object. Major advantages of this approach include one-time transmission, fixed communication topology, and increased locality of reference. Early results based on lightweight processes show that the mobile process paradigm can be as efficient as the message-passing paradigm.