A New Design for Distributed Systems: The Remote Memory Model

Abstract

This paper describes a new model for constructing distributed systems called lhe Remote Memory Model.The remote memory model consisls of several client machines, one or morc dedicated machines called remote memory servers, and a communication channel interconnecting lhem.In the remote memory model, client machines share lhe memory resources located on the remote memory server.Client machines that exhaust lheir local memory move portions of lheir address space to the remote memory server and retrieve pieces as needed.Because lhe remote memory server uses a machineindependent prolOCOl to communicate wilh client machines, lhe remote memory server can support multiple heterogeneous client machines simultaneously.This paper describes lhe remote memory model and discusses lhe advantages and issues of systems that use this model.It examines lhe design of a highly efficient, reliable, machine-independent prolOColused by the remote memory server to communicate with the client machines.It also outlines the algorilhms and data structures employed by the remote memory server to efficiently locate the data stored on lhe server.Finally, it presenls measuremenls of a prototype implementation that clearly demonstrate the viability and competitive performance of the remote memory model.