Luís Rodrigues
PhD Thesis,
Instituto Superior Técnico, September, 1995.
Most of today's large-scale networks are built of clusters of local-area networks interconnected by long-haul point-to-point links. To offer efficient group communication over this type of infra-structure, the dissertation suggests an hierarchical approach that combines protocols dedicated to local-area networks with protocols dedicated to large-scale networks. In the framework, the thesis extends and improves previous results in the area of local-area group communication. Additionally, new approaches for operation in large-scale are proposed, including algorithms to enforce causal and total order. Finally, to illustrate the use of these technologies, the thesis proposes a generic architecture to support remote invocation of replicated objects. The remote invocation protocol supports the use of different replication strategies for each object. It is believed that such a problem-oriented approach will be a key factor to offer the flexibility and efficiency required by future distributed applications.
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