{"title":"On the (Un)Reliability of TCP Connections: The Return of the End-to-End Argument","authors":"Vadim Drabkin, R. Friedman, G. Kliot","doi":"10.1109/MDSO.2008.22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MDSO.2008.22","url":null,"abstract":"Developers often use TCP connections to realize reliable point-to-point communication in distributed systems. A common issue in such systems' design is whether a middleware or an application can rely solely on TCP or if a higher-level reliable mechanism should be implemented above it. A related question is whether developers can use the breakage of TCP for failure detection. The famous end-to-end argument answers the first question. Yet common wisdom suggests that TCP breakage always results from the failure of a process or machine on either end of the connection or from a severe networking problem. Consequently, some designers might be tempted to avoid implementing a higher-level reliable delivery mechanism when designing systems for LAN environments. Others might rely on TCP breakage as a definite indication of a failure or a network partition. Here, we highlight the dangers of relying solely on TCP for reliability without any additional message- recovery mechanism at the application level (or at least inside a middleware in the same address space as the application). Also, TCP breakage can occur in a perfectly functioning LAN, so it can't be relied on for failure detection either.","PeriodicalId":111285,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Distributed Systems Online","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128648228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Architectural Constraints in the Model-Driven Development of Self-Adaptive Applications","authors":"Mohammad Ullah Khan, R. Reichle, K. Geihs","doi":"10.1109/MDSO.2008.19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MDSO.2008.19","url":null,"abstract":"In component-based software development, a composition of connected components represents a software system's architecture. This component framework supports adaptation through application variability. The adaptation decision is made at runtime by resolving the variation points and computing the utility of all application variants. Following the application variability model, a huge number of application variants may arise, many of which are not feasible in reality. Architectural constraints may be applied to filter out such infeasible variants before checking their utilities. This article presents an approach to specify architectural constraints while following a model-driven development approach.","PeriodicalId":111285,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Distributed Systems Online","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123580451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Fergusson, Richard P. Hopkins, Diego Romano, E. V. Meer, Malcolm P. Atkinson
{"title":"Distributed Computing Education, Part 2: International Summer Schools","authors":"David Fergusson, Richard P. Hopkins, Diego Romano, E. V. Meer, Malcolm P. Atkinson","doi":"10.1109/MDSO.2008.20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MDSO.2008.20","url":null,"abstract":"In 2003, the distributed computing community began the international summer schools in grid computing series (www.iceage-eu.org/issgc08/index.cfm), now in its sixth year. These schools aim to bring together leading experts and practitioners in the field with selected international students, who will return to their home communities to pass their knowledge and enthusiasm on to others. The second installment of this department presents curriculum details and the results of the students' assessments of the school.","PeriodicalId":111285,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Distributed Systems Online","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125223230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Software-as-a-Service: The Spark That Will Change Software Engineering?","authors":"G. Goth","doi":"10.1109/MDSO.2008.21","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MDSO.2008.21","url":null,"abstract":"In the past year, SaaS has emerged from its pioneering group of start-ups and medium-sized vendors delivering software on demand to be embraced by software giants such as Oracle and SAP. Some veteran technologists and industry analysts also see SaaS as a catalyst for more interactive, iterative software development.","PeriodicalId":111285,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Distributed Systems Online","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130738659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Software Architecture Patterns for a Context-Processing Middleware Framework","authors":"Romain Rouvoy, D. Conan, L. Seinturier","doi":"10.1109/MDSO.2008.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MDSO.2008.17","url":null,"abstract":"Ubiquitous applications are characterized by variations in their execution context. Their correct operation requires some continual adaptations based on the observation of this context. The design and implementation of these observation policies is thus the cornerstone of any ubiquitous application. COSMOS is a component-based framework for managing context information in ubiquitous context-aware applications. COSMOS decomposes context observation policies into fine-grained units called context nodes, which it implements as software components. These units perform basic context-related operations, such as gathering data from a system or network probe and computing threshold or average values. The framework assembles these units with a set of well-identified architectural design patterns. A mobile computing scenario illustrates the framework's benefits.","PeriodicalId":111285,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Distributed Systems Online","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128107949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Fergusson, E. V. Meer, Malcolm P. Atkinson, Diego Romano
{"title":"Distributed Computing Education, Part 1: A Special Case?","authors":"David Fergusson, E. V. Meer, Malcolm P. Atkinson, Diego Romano","doi":"10.1109/MDSO.2008.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MDSO.2008.16","url":null,"abstract":"Governments and other funding agencies worldwide have recently been investing in the development of research- and production-quality e-infrastructures. To allow for the full development and use of these technologies, the necessary infrastructure must be in place, and researchers of all disciplines- and ultimately all citizens--must acquire the skills required to access the available services. Therefore, it's vital to develop policies to support e-infrastructure education and training. However, distributed computing teaching must address issues beyond the strictly technological. This installment is an introduction to a description of experiences in addressing these issues at national and international levels.","PeriodicalId":111285,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Distributed Systems Online","volume":"230 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117321039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ultra Low-Cost PCs Redraw the OS Wars","authors":"G. Goth","doi":"10.1109/MDSO.2008.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MDSO.2008.18","url":null,"abstract":"The wild card that might preclude Microsoft's Eclipse isn't a revolutionary online approach or a blockbuster acquisition. Rather, it might emerge from the global rise of a new category of computer, the ultra-low-cost PC, or ULPC. This category combines attributes of feature-laden personal computers with network-dependent thin clients to deliver either a \"best of both worlds\" or an acceptable performance compromise, depending on your perspective.","PeriodicalId":111285,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Distributed Systems Online","volume":"83 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130495091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Comprehensive Development Guide for the Globus Toolkit","authors":"D. Petcu","doi":"10.1109/MDSO.2008.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MDSO.2008.15","url":null,"abstract":"A review of Grid Computing For Developers by Vladimir Silva","PeriodicalId":111285,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Distributed Systems Online","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123489950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Power to the Patients","authors":"G. Goth","doi":"10.1109/MDSO.2008.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MDSO.2008.14","url":null,"abstract":"Network-enabled communication has revolutionized financial services, retail sales, auctions, and business-to-business transactions. But one of the largest global economy's sectors - healthcare - remains locked in a technological netherworld- part paper, part digital, and almost entirely user- unfriendly. Public officials and healthcare industry executives acknowledge that switching from paper-based to network-enabled digital records would save billions of dollars per year. Google and Microsoft are both fielding pilot programs of new technologies for networked, interoperable electronic health records systems. The new technologies, Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault, are classified as personal health records (PHRs), which are a subset of industry-recognized electronic health records (EHRs). Eventually, the two technologies will allow patients to synchronize their records between their various healthcare providers, including dynamic uploading of new data that will then be available to any authorized doctor, nurse, or pharmacist, regardless of their institutional affiliation. The approaches are different: Google Health is a front-end application, while HealthVault is a database that users will augment with via third-party applications. However, the goal is the same in both cases: patients will have ultimate control of their medical records.","PeriodicalId":111285,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Distributed Systems Online","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131765503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}