Consistent reconfiguration protocols for adaptive high-performance applications

Programming models for Pervasive Computing applications typically include the possibility of specifying software components according to multiple alternative versions, each optimized for a certain class of computing and communication technologies. A main mechanism provided by these programming models permits to dynamically select one of the alternative versions for the execution. This reconfiguration activity may be critical, from a performance point of view, when considering High-Performance Pervasive Computing applications, especially if the reconfiguration must be performed in such a way that the application semantics is respected (i.e. the reconfiguration is consistent). In this paper we show how to introduce consistent reconfiguration protocols for the ASSISTANT programming model, we exemplify two general protocols and we show experimental results for one of them. Index Terms—High-Performance Computing, Autonomic Computing, Reconfiguration Protocols, Pervasive and Mobile Computing