Experimenting with the implementation of parallel programs on a communication heterogeneous cluster

Abstract

A network-based computing environment is a cost-effective parallel computing infrastructure because of the utilization of commodity hardware and software and because the current communication networks and processing speeds in a computer are high. On the other hand, recent advances in wireless communications have become the WLANs a viable option for performing parallel and distributed computing. In this paper it is presented a cluster of portable PCs and fixed nodes to perform parallel computing. The wireless nodes can attach to the cluster or leave it in a controlled way via an easy client web based interface. Both features make the parallel virtual machine change dynamically during the parallel algorithm execution. In this kind of cluster it is necessary an efficient management of the attachments and detachments of portable PCs in order not to penalize the normal execution of the whole parallel algorithm.