Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-1997

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Computer Science

Major Professor

Jack Dongarra

Committee Members

Michael Berry, Jim Plank

Abstract

NetSolve is a client-server application that enables users to solve complex scientific problems remotely. The system accesses both hardware and software computational resources distributed across a network. NetSolve searches for computational resources on a network, chooses the best one available, solves a problem using retry for fault tolerance, and returns the answer to the user. A load balanc- ing policy is implemented in the NetSolve system to ensure good performance by enabling the system to utilize available the computational resources as effectively as possible.

Some objectives of the NetSolve project are user-friendly interfaces, more productive use of system resources, and the integration of any numerical software as a resource into the NetSolve system. Numerous interfaces have been designed and implemented which enable users to access and use the system more easily. An agent-based design has been implemented to ensure more efficient utilization of the system's resources. Thus, the work presented in this paper focuses on the goal of arbitrary software integration into the NetSolve System.

One of the key characteristics of any successful software package is versatility. In order to ensure the success of NetSolve, the system has to be able to incorporate any piece of numerical software, regardless of its format, with relative ease. There can be no restrictions on the type of numerical software that can be integrated into the system.

The process of adding and updating NetSolve computational resources or servers is greatly enhanced and facilitated by the addition of a Java interface. Java is a new object-oriented programming language and environment that is secure, dynamic, architecture-neutral and multi-threaded. The NetSolve server interface is designed so that any scientific software can be translated and compiled into a common source code. The Java interface design is able to incorporate some of the tasks previously implemented in the NetSolve server compiler. The Java interface also guarantees that every formal language file presented to the compiler is always in a predetermined error-free format. Thus, the implementation of the Java interface resulted in the NetSolve server compiler being redesigned into a more efficient and effective tool.

With the use of the Java interface, the NetSolve resource administrator can cre- ate and dynamically change a NetSolve computational server simply and clearly. The administrator no longer needs to know about the complexity of the under- lying formal descriptive language utilized by the system. The only information required is that of the software package being added to the system. So now with the development of the Java interface, in conjunction with the use and transla- tion of the formal descriptive language used by the NetSolve server, any scientific numerical library can be integrated into the NetSolve system.

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