Networks and Distributed Computation: Concepts, Tools, and Algorithms

Networks and Distributed Computation covers the recent rapid developments in distributed systems. It introduces the basic tools for the design and analysis of systems involving large-scale concurrency, with examples based on network systems; considers problems of network and global state learning; discusses protocols allowing synchronization constraints to be distributed; and analyzes the fundamental elements of distribution in detail, using a large number of algorithms.

Interprocess communication and synchronization are central issues in the design of distributed systems, taking on a different character from their counterparts in centralized systems. Raynal addresses these issues in detail and develops a coherent framework for presenting and analyzing a wide variety of algorithms relevant to distributed computation.

Contents:

First example - a data transfer protocol. Second example - independent control of logic clocks. Simple algorithms and protocols. Determination of the global state. Distributing a global synchronization constraint. Elements and algorithms for a toolbox.

Michel Raynal is Professor of Computer Science at the Institute for Research in Informatics and Random Systems at the University of Rennes, France. He is author of Algorithms for Mutual Exclusion (MIT Press 1986). Networks and Distributed Computation is included in the Computer Systems series edited by Herb Schwetman.