[PLUG] LAN broadcast?
Wayne E. Van Loon Sr.
wevl at pacifier.com
Thu Jun 2 06:04:13 UTC 2011
Hello Tim:
Tim wrote:
> Hi Wayne,
>
>
>> I have a question about user applications using broadcast on a LAN.
>>
>> I usually have several processes that connect via TCP/IP to a central
>> server that solves some optimization problems. In more demanding project
>> that I am working on now, I hope to distribute the optimization problem
>> between 24 to 36 helper processes.
>>
>> At the start of each optimization job, I will have a few data files that
>> need to be distributed to each of the helper optimization processes.
>> Rather than have the central optimizer / server send these files 24
>> times, some way to broadcast these files to all machines / processes at
>> the same time might be nice.
>>
>> Is that the kind of thing that broadcasting could accomplish?
>>
>> And if so, and in a big picture way, how would one do it?
>>
>
>
> You could use broadcast, yes. Most likely you would want to use UDP
> for this, since TCP handshakes and broadcast doesn't really mix. To
> accomplish this, you would simply have each helper process listen for
> the broadcast messages and then send results back to the central
> server at the server's unicast address.
>
> However, a "sexier" way of accomplishing the same thing would be to
> use multicast. This would allow you to distribute the broadcast
> messages scalably across router boundaries. Multicast is really
> powerful for specific applications like this and I hope it catches on
> some day, since it can completely replace distribution models like
> bittorrent.
>
> Finally, instead of implementing all of this distributed
> computation/communication yourself, you might consider using an MPI
> library or even building a BOINC application. Or maybe you don't need
> to go distributed at all for the scale of your project by instead
> leveraging the massively parallel processor you probably have in your
> system (a.k.a. your video card). See OpenCL.
>
> HTH,
> tim
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG mailing list
> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>
Not surprised. I couldn't see a way to broadcast using SOCK_STREAM.
Googled all over trying to find an example. Does it follow that since I
would like to use SOCK_STREAM for the rest of the communications during
the optimization job, the multicast side would need to be on a second
network interface?
Wayne
>
>
More information about the PLUG
mailing list