Extending Dynamic Reconfiguration to NOWs with Adaptive Routing

Abstract

Many distributed applications executed on networks of workstations (NOWs) require the interconnection network to provide some quality of service (QoS) support. These networks must be able to support topology changes (due to component failures, hot replacement, hot expansion, etc.) without stopping traffic, in order to satisfy QoS requirements. Traditional network reconfiguration methods do not take this into account, causing a serious performance degradation while the network is being reconfigured.In [1,2], we proposed a new dynamic network reconfiguration protocol, called Partial Progressive Reconfiguration. It significantly reduces the negative effects produced by traditional methods. For this reason, it is especially suitable for applications requiring QoS. This reconfiguration protocol requires that messages are routed using up*/down* routing.In this paper, we extend this dynamic reconfiguration technique to support adaptive routing, based on the design methodology for adaptive algorithms proposed in [3,4]. We also present performance evaluation results, clearly showing the benefits of using dynamic reconfiguration combined with adaptive routing.