Subject: C432 JGSI Review Resent-Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 08:24:36 -0400 Resent-From: Geoffrey Fox Resent-To: p_gcf@npac.syr.edu Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 11:50:18 -0500 From: Joel Jones To: Geoffrey Fox >a)Overall Recommendation Interesting work technically, but the presentation needs to be overhauled. Publish only if they change the emphasis of their presentation to more clearly portray what their contribution is and is not. >b)Words suitable for authors In the abstract, the question arises as to whether compute servers really have network connectivity that is really that unreliable. In the first bullet item on page 3, the statement regarding the dependence on lifetime reliable network connections isn't true for applications distributed across different administrative domains. There are numerous projects that have used global computing architectures, such as DSP for SETI, DES cracking, and others where work is parceled out and then connectivity isn't an issue for long periods of time. The second bullet item also doesn't address this class of global computing applications. In the next to last paragraph of section one, you fail to mention that one of the big problems for certain classes of applications is data movement. Only problems that don't require large amounts of data to be moved (such as the ones above) are appropriate for global distribution. I wouldn't necessarily consider an ATM network that connects computer-servers directly to be particularly global---at least not yet. It would also be useful here to mention that DSA provides a solution to data access, at least in the sort of network architecture that you have experimented with. In the first paragraph of section 2.2, change "Mobile agents have their" to "Mobile agents have as their". In the paragraph before the second code example on page 6, change "directory for agent" to "directory for an agent". In the next to last paragraph of page 7, you should make it clear that DSAs are used for application data as well as synchronization. In the third paragraph on page 11, mention what the performance impact is. In the first bullet item on page 11, change "spawned on demands" to "spawns on demand". In the second bullet item on page 11, change "facilities" to "facilitates" In the first sentence of section 5.1, make "AgentTask" all one font. The code examples on page 13 should use the same font as the other code examples in the paper. In the paragraph between the first and second code examples on page 13, "TaskAgent" should be in the same font as other code fragments. In the first paragraph of section 6, make the verb tense consistent. In figure 4, correct the label on the y-axis to either read vertically or horizontally, not both. In the last paragraph of page 15, change "critical" to "critically". On page 16, I have the following comment. In some sense, what you're doing is implementing a distributed VM using Agent/Broker/server technology for applications that are appropriately decomposable. The ability to decompose the application is measured by how effective your DSA works for the application. In section 7, the text beginning "Traveler provides an agent wrapper", is good and should go earlier, perhaps in your abstract or introduction. >c)Words for me if necessary Joel Jones jjones@uiuc.edu