Implementing remote procedure calls with DECnet

Conference · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6742389

Bjorklund, E; Schaller, S C

The ''Remote Procedure Call'' (RPC) has recently become an important communication model for distributed systems. The basic idea behind remote procedure calls is that a process running on one machine can ''call'', using standard procedure calling semantics, another routine that executes on a different machine. A message-passing mechanism is used to transfer parameters between the caller and the called routine. In this paper, we describe a remote procedure call system we have implemented that uses DECnet as the underlying message-passing mechanism. Our system is highly reliable, reasonalbly efficient, and supports some advanced features such as asynchronous remote procedures. The described system is currently part of a distributed accelerator-control system containing VMS, Micro-VMS, and VAXELN nodes. It could also be extended to any other system that supports DECnet. Topics discussed include the system design, parameter-passing protocol, error detection and recovery, and performance.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6742389
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-86-4336; CONF-870471-1; ON: DE87003754
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990220* -- Computers
Computerized Models
& Computer Programs-- (1987-1989)
COMPUTER NETWORKS
COMPUTERS
DATA PROCESSING
DEC COMPUTERS
EQUIPMENT INTERFACES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PROCESSING
TASK SCHEDULING
TESTING