2nd International IEEE Conference on Communication System Software and Middleware

Research Article

Scalable Multicast Platforms for a New Generation of Robust Distributed Applications

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/COMSWA.2007.382417,
        author={Ken Birman and Mahesh  Balakrishnan and Danny  Dolev and Tudor  Marian and Krzysztof  Ostrowski and Amar Phanishayee},
        title={Scalable Multicast Platforms for a New Generation of Robust Distributed Applications},
        proceedings={2nd International IEEE Conference on Communication System Software and Middleware},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={COMSWARE},
        year={2007},
        month={7},
        keywords={Automatic programming  Fault tolerance  Java  Linux  Middleware  Publish-subscribe  Robustness  Scalability  Throughput  Time factors},
        doi={10.1109/COMSWA.2007.382417}
    }
    
  • Ken Birman
    Mahesh Balakrishnan
    Danny Dolev
    Tudor Marian
    Krzysztof Ostrowski
    Amar Phanishayee
    Year: 2007
    Scalable Multicast Platforms for a New Generation of Robust Distributed Applications
    COMSWARE
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.1109/COMSWA.2007.382417
Ken Birman1,*, Mahesh Balakrishnan, Danny Dolev2, Tudor Marian, Krzysztof Ostrowski, Amar Phanishayee3
  • 1: Dept. of Computer Science, Cornell University.
  • 2: Hebrew University in Jerusalem
  • 3: CMU
*Contact email: ken@cs.cornell.edu

Abstract

As distributed systems scale up and are deployed into increasingly sensitive settings, demand is rising for a new generation of communications middleware in support of application-level critical-computing uses. Ricochet, Tempest and Quicksilver are multicast-based systems developed to respond to this need. Ricochet and Quicksilver are multicast platforms; both are exceptionally scalable and support fault-tolerance properties that match closely with the needs of high-availability applications. Ricochet was designed to support time-critical applications replicated for scalability on data centers and clusters. These are typically coded in Java and run under Linux. Tempest is layered over Ricochet and automates most tasks of programming services for data centers. In contrast, Quicksilver focuses on high throughput and is targeted towards very large deployments of desktop computing systems, in support of publish-subscribe, event notification or media dissemination applications. In this paper we offer an overview of the systems and some of the new systems embeddings that, we believe, make them far easier to use than was the case in prior multicast platforms.