Parallel object allocation via user-specified directives: A case study in traffic simulation

Parallel applications can exhibit different behaviours in their dynamic need of resources. Then, predefined and automatic approaches to allocation cannot always achieve satisfactory results. The paper presents the approach adopted in the PO (Parallel Objects) environment to let users drive object allocation in parallel/distributed architectures. A set of a high-level directives permits users to specify the allocation needs of application objects; a dynamic load balancing tool – part of the environment run-time support – uses the user-level allocation directives to tune its behaviour. The paper presents the PO implementation of an application example in the field of traffic simulation. The goal is to shows the ease of use and the flexibility of the allocation directives, together with the effectiveness of the approach in improving the performances of dynamic object-oriented parallel applications. Key-Words: Parallel Objects, Run-Time Support, Load Balancing, Allocation Directives, Traffic Simulation