Parallel object allocation via user-specified directives: A case study in traffic simulation

Predefined and automatic approaches to allocation cannot always achieve satisfactory results, due to the very different behaviours in the dynamic need of resources of parallel applications. This paper presents the approach adopted in the Parallel Objects (PO) environment to let users drive object allocation in parallel/distributed architectures. A set of high-level directives permits users to specify the allocation needs of application objects; a dynamic load-balancing tool - part of the environment run-time support - uses the user-level allocation directives to tune its behaviour. This paper presents the PO implementation of an application example in the field of traffic simulation. The goal is to show the ease of use and the flexibility of the allocation directives, together with the effectiveness of the approach in improving the performances of dynamic object-oriented parallel applications. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved