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A Hierarchical Model for Coordination of Concurrent Activities

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Coordinatio Languages and Models (COORDINATION 1999)

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Abstract

We describe a hierarchical model for coordination of concurrent activities based on grouping actors into casts and coordinating casts by actors that are designated directors. The hierarchical model provides a simple, intuitive basis for actor communication and coordination. Casts serve as abstraction units for naming, migration, synchronization and load balancing. Messengers are actors used to send messages with special behaviour across casts. Moreover, an implementation of the hierarchical model does not require a reflective run-time architecture. We present the operational semantics for our model and illustrate the model by two sample applications: an atomic multicast protocol and a messenger carrying remote exception-handling code. These applications have been implemented in Java, leveraging the existence of cross-platform, safe virtual machine implementations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Carlos Varela & Gul Agha

Authors
  1. Carlos Varela
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  2. Gul Agha
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Informazione, Università die Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni, 7, I-40127, Bologna, Italy

    Paolo Ciancarini

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309-0430, USA

    Alexander L. Wolf

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Varela, C., Agha, G. (1999). A Hierarchical Model for Coordination of Concurrent Activities. In: Ciancarini, P., Wolf, A.L. (eds) Coordinatio Languages and Models. COORDINATION 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1594. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48919-3_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48919-3_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65836-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48919-1

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